From the CTWatchdog: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is investigating a massive security breach that allegedly compromised private financial and health information on nearly a half million WellPoint consumers, including thousands in Connecticut. In a letter to WellPoint Inc., Blumenthal has requested detailed information about how the breach occurred, what steps have been taken to…
Author: Dissent
Bank of New York Mellon granted summary judgment in lost backup tapes lawsuit
Brandon Tavelli writes: On June 25, 2010, Judge Richard Berman of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment to The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. in Hammond v. The Bank of New York Mellon Corp., dismissing in its entirety a putative class action lawsuit arising from the…
UK: Council will not face censure for Data Protection error
A council which wrongly included national insurance numbers on post will not face action over the blunder. Northumberland County Council has been told by the Information Commissioner that it will not be censured over the mistake. The Journal reported in April how, due to “human error”, the authority failed to remove national insurance numbers from…
WellPoint: 940 customers’ records may have been accessed
Reuters reports on the WellPoint breach that’s in the news this week: […] The company believes that the security glitch was exploited to access information on 940 insurance applications. Separately, unauthorized viewers accessed spreadsheets that “in rare cases” contained Social Security numbers, Sanders said. WellPoint is doing forensic work to identify the applicants whose data…
AU: Patients’ privacy put under threat
Anna Caldwell reports: The private details of Queensland Health patients are at risk of being lost or stolen and there are inadequate plans to deal with a major security breach. But the troubled department is racing to implement computerised medical records. The Auditor-General’s report into information systems governance and control has identified gaps in protocol…
FBI Investigating Possible DSHS Hacker
Emily Ramshaw reports: The FBI is investigating whether a hacker broke into the state’s confidential cancer registry, possibly holding personal information and medical records hostage. Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs says state health officials notified his office in early May that a hacker was holding the Texas Cancer Registry hostage and demanding a…