The Associated Press reports that the names and personal information, including SSN, of about 300 current and former Boise city employees were on a backup computer tape lost by a courier used by Mercer to transport the tape to a storage facility in Washington.
Author: Dissent
Clinics Challenge Louisiana Abortion Laws
Sabrina Canfield reports: Six medical clinics have challenged Louisiana laws on abortion, including the “Ultrasound Statute,” which could force doctors to make women take home ultrasound pictures of their fetuses, even if the women resist, according to the federal complaint. The Hope Medical Group for Women and five other clinics say the two state laws…
How an ancient printer can spill your most intimate secrets
Dan Goodin reports: Researchers have devised a novel way to recover confidential messages processed in doctors’ offices and elsewhere by analyzing the sounds made when documents are reproduced on dot-matrix printers. This so-called side-channel attack works by recording the “acoustic emanations” of a confidential document being printed, and then processing it with software that translates…
Laptops stolen from Jewish Hospital contained patient data on 2,089
Charles Gazaway reports that two laptops containing unencrypted personal information were stolen from Jewish Hospital. This appears to be the third breach in recent months involving Jewish Hospital. Previous breaches were reported here. A statement posted on the hospital’s web site says: A potential data breach was discovered at the Jewish Hospital Catheterization Lab following…
UNCG Discovers Health Information Security Breaches; 2,500 Being Notified
From the University of North Carolina – Greensboro (UNGG) statement: Computer security breaches at two UNCG clinics allowed unauthorized access to information about more than 2,500 individuals. The university has mailed letters to the last known addresses of those whose personal information was exposed and posted notices on the clinics’ websites. The two computers infected…
DC Chartered Health Plan reports breach
DC Chartered Health Plan, Inc. notified HHS of a laptop theft affecting 540 people. The theft occurred May 26 and was reported last week. No notice appears on their web site, so I do not know whether the laptop was stolen from their premises or from off-premises. Nor do we yet know what kinds of…