Maura Byrne reports on Independent.ie that a Bank of Ireland cashier who used a skimmer to steal data from 87 customer accounts that was used to steal almost €320,000 being taken from their accounts — has been given a suspended sentence. The theft occurred between October 2006 and February 2007. Darren McComiskey reportedly passed the…
Author: Dissent
LA: Medical records discarded in trash bin
Chrissi Coile of KTBS reports that a large pile of medical records containing x-rays, MRIs, names, and Social Security numbers which were found discarded in Toney’s Eastridge Grocery’s trash bin were put there by Dr. Frederick Knight, who admits that it is not the first time he has done something like that. Police are investigating,…
Shell Oil web site hacked; customer data acquired
Radio New Zealand is reporting that Shell Oil says 1,400 of its customers in New Zealand and 4,500 in Australia have had personal details stolen by online hackers. Customers who made online applications for fuel cards were affected and their bank account details may have been stolen. The incident was the second breach reported by…
Did The BBC break the law in its botnet report?
So…. did The BBC break the law when it bought and implemented a 22,000-strong botnet as part of its Click news reporting? Nick Farrell of IT Examiner reports that Sophos’ Graeme Cluely suggests that they did because the UK Computer Misuse Act makes it an offense in the United Kingdom to access another person’s computer,…
University of Florida: “starting to have…. quite a reputation”
Nathan Crabbe of The Gainesville Sun reports that in addition to the breaches that recently made the news, UF has had four cases of ID theft resulting from breaches. During a committee meeting of university trustees at which they passed federal rules intended to prevent identity theft, UF Chief Privacy Officer Susan Blair described the…
Bad Bet on Medical Records
Stephen B. Soumerai is a professor of ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard Medical School. Sumit R. Majumdar is an associate professor at the University of Alberta’s Department of Medicine. The following is an op-ed they wrote that appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post: […] The assumption underlying the proposed investment in health IT is that…