Bill Curry reports: An amateur hacker attacked two government servers at Agriculture Canada, putting at risk about 60,000 personal-data records of Canadian farmers, according to the Privacy Commissioner’s annual report. The report lists various privacy breaches that came to the Commissioner’s attention over the past year, but Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said she was at a…
Author: Dissent
OH: Employer's DNA test rule raises legal concerns
Judy Greenwald reports: The University of Akron is expected to soon rescind a controversial rule that lets the university demand DNA samples from job applicants as part of a criminal background check. Observers say the requirement—believed to be the first genetic testing rule imposed by an employer—violates the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act and the Americans…
Follow-up: B.C. privacy czar to probe files breach
Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines report: B.C.’s privacy commissioner has launched his own investigation into how sensitive information from 1,400 income-assistance clients ended up at the home of a government employee. Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis said he has tough questions for the provincial government, including how the employee, a government case worker, was…
Follow-up: FBI looking at UMC records leak
Marshall Allen of the Las Vegas Sun reports: The FBI said Friday it may investigate a breach of patient privacy laws at University Medical Center, where hospital officials are reeling with the realization that at least one of their employees has leaked confidential names, birth dates and Social Security numbers. UMC officials spent Friday determining…
AZ Attorney General to investigate Health Net
A second state’s attorney general is opening an investigation into the Health Net breach that was only recently revealed six months after the data were either lost or stolen. From the press release from Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard: Attorney General Terry Goddard today called on Health Net, a Connecticut-based insurance company, to immediately notify…
Notre Dame security breach potentially affects employees
Notre Dame is warning university employees to keep an eye on their bank accounts after a security breach. Personal information of some past and current employees – including name, social security number and birth date – was accidentally put onto a public website. University spokesman Dennis Brown says the error was corrected and the information…