Adam D. Krauss brings us the latest on the controversy over a breach at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital: A state investigator says after reviewing additional information he still doesn’t think Wentworth-Douglass Hospital had to notify patients impacted by the privacy breach. James Boffetti, who leads the Office of the Attorney General’s consumer protection and antitrust bureau, said…
Author: Dissent
8 jailed for personal data scam in S China
A man was sentenced to a year and a half behind bars in the country’s first-known case of violating the security of personal information on Sunday, local media reported Monday. Zhou Jianping, a resident of Zhuhai, Guangdong province, set up a private investigation company in the provincial capital Guangzhou two years ago and sold personal…
KS: Two Indicted For Identity Theft
WIBW reports: A Topeka man and Olathe woman are accused of identity theft. 45-year old Robert L. Maxwell of Topeka and 46-year old Marcella D. Machado of Olathe are each charged with conspiracy, bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, and theft or receipt of stolen mail. The indictment alleges that Maxwell and Machado obtained information relating…
UK: Tough new sanctions proposed for breaches of data protection law
The Ministry of Justice is running two consultation exercises in tandem concerning proposals to amend the Data Protection Act. The first proposal is to introduce custodial sentences of up to two years for data protection offences; the second proposal is to introduce new civil penalties, with an upper limit fine of £0.5m, for serious breaches…
Confidential information abandoned in forgotten HANO building
Dennis Woltering of WWLTV in Louisiana reports: Confidential records left in file cabinets and strewn through a former HANO [Housing Authority of New Orleans] office building in Algiers have raised questions about the agency’s promise to secure private information. HANO abandoned a former office loaded with all kinds of confidential information about two years ago…
UK: Home secretary: ID register contains NI numbers
Home secretary Alan Johnson has confirmed that the National Identity Register contains National Insurance numbers and answers to ‘shared secrets’. In a revelation that is likely to intensify the arguments over the privacy implications of the database, Johnson claimed the NI numbers have been included to “aid identity verification checks for identity cards and, in…