A missing computer part, with sensitive patient credit information, is missing from Pitt County Memorial Hospital. The hospital is trying to notify 1700 former patients, offering them free credit monitoring to those whose personal information may have been compromised. The hospital says patient names and Social Security numbers were placed onto a portable computer storage…
Author: Dissent
Schwarzenegger vetoes Simitian’s privacy protection bill
Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed State Senator Joe Simitian’s (D-Palo Alto) Senate Bill 20. The bill would have strengthened and updated California’s landmark privacy protection law that requires businesses and state agencies to notify residents when sensitive personal information is lost or stolen from their databases. “I’m surprised as well as disappointed by the Governor’s veto,“ said…
Big-Box Breach: The Inside Story of Wal-Mart’s Hacker Attack
Kim Zetter reports: Wal-Mart was the victim of a serious security breach in 2005 and 2006 in which hackers targeted the development team in charge of the chain’s point-of-sale system and siphoned source code and other sensitive data to a computer in Eastern Europe, Wired.com has learned. Internal documents reveal for the first time that…
Number of identity-fraud victims in Ireland hits 90,000
John Kennedy reports: More than 3,000 new cases of identity fraud have been identified since this time last year, bringing the total number of victims in Ireland to 90,000. New research brought out in conjunction with National Fraud Week, 12-18 October, reveals 51pc of Irish people are still not sure how fraudsters get access to…
Expert provides more proof hackers hijacked Hotmail accounts
Gregg Keizer reports: It’s almost certain that hackers obtained the Hotmail passwords that leaked to the Internet through a botnet-based attack, a researcher said today as she provided more proof that Microsoft’s explanation was probably off-base. “When I look at the infamous list of 10,000 Hotmail accounts, it just does not appear to be cataloged…
UK: Firms ‘mishandle sensitive data’
About a third of UK employees throw sensitive documents in the bin instead of shredding them, research suggests. The study also found almost three-quarters of workers felt their organisations could do more to protect their customers’ sensitive information. The data was compiled for National Identity Fraud Prevention Week. Identity fraud costs the UK more than…