In the justice system: John Shiefer, the Los Angeles computer security consultant who turned thousands of computers into zombies, was sentenced to four years in prison. More. Four Arizona men accused of spending more than $1 million using stolen credit cards are being held in a Maricopa County jail; they allegedly obtained the card numbers…
Author: Dissent
UK: Hospital sent private patient notes to electrician
Nick Hyde of The Blackpool Gazette reports that Blackpool Victoria Hospital has launched an investigation after sensitive and confidential details of dozens of patients were sent to the home of a Blackpool businessman. This is apparently not the first time this happened, either. The referral forms sent to him last week relate to patients…
Ca: Tenants’ private data available on Internet
John Goddard of The Toronto Star reports that private information about 1,393 tenants — including names, addresses, phone numbers, social insurance numbers, mental health issues, children’s names, ages, where the children go to school, and landlord disputes — could be accessed online in a database maintained by Landlord’s Source Centre. A tenant discovered the problem…
Inquiry into how PrimeShares World Markets acquired personal info of Opes Prime clients
Mark Hawthorne of The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission is investigating how the private account details of Opes Prime clients were acquired by New York- based PrimeShares World Markets. Read more.
OH: St. Rita’s patients warned of possible ID theft
A bag stolen last month from the car of a home-health employee for St. Rita’s Medical Center contained personal and/or medical information on 242 patients, including, in some cases, Social Security numbers. Read more in LimaOhio.com
Google says new privacy rules don’t affect its PHR
[…] Physician Roni Zeiger is product manager for Google Health. Zeiger said that Google hasn’t changed its position regarding HIPAA, notwithstanding the new law, which encompasses the IT provisions of an earlier piece of legislation called the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH. “Our understanding is that HITECH, which is…