Ryan Abbott reports: The parents of a Virginia Tech student who committed suicide say the school failed to follow protocol to protect students after the April 2007 mass killing there. His parents say Daniel Kim, 21, told friends he was “ashamed of being Asian” and was afraid he resembled Seung-Hui Cho, who shot 27 students…
Author: Dissent
UK: Privacy watchdog takes action after thousands of health records are stolen
Mark Hackett, the Chief Executive of Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust (SUHT), has made a formal commitment to improve data security after the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found SUHT in breach of the Data Protection Act. On 19 October 2009 a member of SUHT staff left an unencrypted laptop containing sensitive personal information in a…
UK: Hospital operation photos 'appear on Facebook'
A hospital worker has been suspended amid reports that photos of patients having operations were posted on the social networking site Facebook. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed it had launched an investigation after an incident at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. Patients were not thought to be identifiable in the images. Read more…
Doctors fear privacy sold in HealthNet sale
Rob Varnon reports: Doctors fighting United Health Group’s takeover of HealthNet of the Northeast are demanding an investigation to see if the privacy rights of thousands of Connecticut residents are being violated by the deal. The Connecticut State Medical Society said Tuesday it has asked state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to investigate whether the $510…
UK: Social work records found in second-hand filing cabinet
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found Lancashire County Council in breach of the Data Protection Act after social work records containing sensitive personal data relating to several individuals were found in a filing cabinet purchased second-hand by a member of the public. The records were duplicates of documents held in the council’s offices and…
Ie: Internet forum database ‘hacked’
Irish internet forum Boards.ie has reported an attack on its user database which could affect thousands of users. In a statement it confirmed that “an unauthorised source” from outside Ireland accessed its database server. It urged members who use the same username/email and password on other sites to change passwords. […] Boards.ie says it is…