Philip Irwin of The Glamorgan Gem reports: The Vale Council children’s services department has been hit by another storm of protest, after a memory stick containing child protection details was found in the street outside the council offices. It has been reported that the memory stick also allegedly contained details of court cases and of…
Author: Dissent
Bright magazine leaks personal info
The Karin Spaink blog reports: Bright, a magazine about technology and internet, had an error on the site that leaked the personal data – name, home address, bank account, mobile number – of people who had recently subscribed through the website. Google had already indexed the data, as security expert and recent subscriber Geert Booster…
HITECH: Be afraid, be very afraid
Opinion piece by Maureen Martin, senior fellow for legal affairs at The Heartland Institute: Maureen Martin of The Heartland Institute, a think tank promoting public policy based on individual liberty, limited government and free markets, argues that the new Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act  exposes too much personal information. When President…
Bits ‘n Pieces
In the justice system: Glenn Love II pleaded guilty to conspiracy and aggravated identity theft for stealing more than 80 people’s identities by pretending to be a fraud investigator. Charges are pending against Vickie Parks Sheppard, who allegedly assisted him. More. Faced with a mountain of medical bills for her ailing husband, the lending director…
HHS Secretary nominee pushes HIT’s role in data mining even as new report of stolen electronic medical records surfaces
On Tuesday, HHS Secretary nominee, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, confirmed her support for the use of electronic medical records as a way of data mining patient information. During the Senate hearings on her confirmation, Gov. Sebelius said that electronic health records (EHR) data was crucial to conduct “comparative effectiveness research [CER] to provide information on…
MD: State employee information lost in the mail
Gadi Dechter of The Baltimore Sun reports: The names and Social Security numbers of about 8,000 state employees and retirees were in a report “lost in the mail” this month, raising concerns about identity theft and questions about why sensitive information was sent through the postal service rather than electronically. […] On March 3, the…