On July 3, 2009, the German Federal Parliament passed comprehensive amendments to the Federal Data Protection Act (the “Federal Act”). These amendments also passed the Federal Council on July 10, 2009, and the revised law will enter into force on September 1, 2009. The new amendments cover a range of data protection-related issues, including marketing,…
Author: Dissent
Network Solutions hacked
Hackers have broken into Web servers owned by domain registrar and hosting provider Network Solutions, planting rogue code that resulted in the compromise of more than 573,000 debit and credit card accounts over the past three months, Security Fix has learned. Herndon, Va. based Network Solutions discovered in early June that attackers had hacked into…
First National Bank closes debit accounts
Another delayed effect of the Heartland breach…. More than two thousand debit card customers of First National Bank of Howell have had their accounts closed down after learning of a security breach. Bank officials tell WHMI that after learning of an information breach at Heartland Payment Systems, a national credit and debit card processing company,…
Personal info of hundreds dumped as trash in Parker
When residents of a Parker [Colorado] apartment complex first called FOX 31, they were concerned about three boxes of files in a dumpster there that appeared to contain sensitive, personal information. We checked and found out that it was worse than anyone thought. The files were real estate documents that contained credit checks, bank account…
Health record haste sparks privacy fears
The economic stimulus law is creating privacy risks as it forces fast development of electronic health records, according to at least one privacy advocate. The Privacy and Security Workgroup of the Health and Human Services Department’s Health Information Technology Standards Committee presented its recommendations to the committee on July 21. It included a framework of…
Panel wants privacy protection for electronic medical records
A federal advisory panel on patient privacy wants encryption, strong access controls and audits to protecting patients’ medical records under the program advanced by the economic stimulus law, according to the co-chair of the group. “The data will be encrypted and not set for easy access,†Steven Findlay, co-chair of the Health Information Technology Standards…