Pentel customers who ordered online at www.pentelstore.com were recently notified that hackers accessed their personal information and credit card information. By letter dated March 3 to the New Hampshire Attorney General, the pen manufacturer reported (pdf) that on January 20, its web maintainer and server host notified them that between December 11, 2008, and January…
Author: Dissent
Minnesota agency accidentally reveals personal info of employees
Politics in Minnesota reports that the Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) accidentally revealed employees’ home towns instead of “town of duty station” in response to a freedom of information law request that also requested state employees’ name, salary, job title, and agency. The information was posted to a web site by whoever had requested it,…
Coleman campaign donors warned about possible breach
The Associated Press is reporting that Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman has asked for a federal investigation into whether his Senate campaign donors’ confidential data have been breached. The campaign first became aware of the possibility of a breach in January but their investigation at the time did not uncover any unauthorized access to the information….
Lost or Missing in the UK
Brian Meechan of BBC Wales reports that in 2007, a CD with the personal details of more than 2,300 crime victims was lost in the post by Gwent Police, but none of those affected were ever notified because the police decided that the data could not be accessed. The CD had been password-protected, but the…
Florida couple fed up over medical fax flap
Laura Kadechka reports on a Tampa couple who have been received misdirected faxes containing pharmacy and medical information for over two years, despite their having contacted the pharmacies and medical clinics to tell them of the error. The doctor who had had their phone number had changed it two years ago. Not wholly surprising, when…
Pointer: State Laws Require Secure Personal Data
Nick Akerman and Melissa J. Krasnow have an article in The National Law Journal: Connecticut, Massachusetts and Nevada recently enacted laws requiring businesses to institute certain compliance measures to secure personal information that can be used to perpetrate identity theft. The Massachusetts law applies to a business located anywhere in the United States that stores…