Although identity theft is a significant public concern, a new audit report by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General indicates that it has become less of a priority instead of more of one over the past few years. Noting that the President’s Identity Theft Task Force (created in May 2006 by…
Author: Dissent
Barnet Council loses thousands of children’s personal files
From an editorial in Ham&High in the UK: Personal details of 9,000 school pupils in Barnet have been stolen from the home of a council employee, bosses have announced. In breach of the council’s policy the employee took home 20 unauthorised and unencrypted CDs and memory sticks full of the children’s details including names, dates…
Letters tip off patients
Pierrette J. Shields reports: Boulder Community Hospital officials are investigating anonymous letters sent to patients of a Lafayette clinic along with medical records that the sender claims were pulled from the trash. A Longmont woman told the Times-Call she received the anonymous letter Monday with a page from her son’s medical records that included private…
(update) ECMC breach due to failure to adhere to policies
Small note for those who look for official disclosure and notification letters: the notification sent by the Educational Credit Management Corp (ECMC) to New Hampshire with a copy of its notification to those affected is now available online (pdf). In other news on the breach, Kelly Jackson Higgins of Dark Reading points out that the…
Blumenthal Investigating Griffin Hospital Information Breach
George Gombossy reports that less than 24 hours after Griffin Hospital revealed a breach, the Connecticut Attorney General is on it: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says he is investigating a breach of medical information that was brought to his attention by Griffin Hospital. “My office is investigating allegations that a radiologist formerly affiliated with…
Google and Facebook raise new issues for therapists and their clients
Dana Scarton reports: As his patient lay unconscious in an emergency room from an overdose of sedatives, psychiatrist Damir Huremovic was faced with a moral dilemma: A friend of the patient had forwarded to Huremovic a suicidal e-mail from the patient that included a link to a Web site and blog he wrote. Should Huremovic…