In a remarkable screw-up, a Department of Justice official today accidentally distributed to the media a document containing the names of nearly 20 confidential witnesses interviewed during a federal probe targeting the operators of a fraudulent investment scheme. In announcing felony charges against two men for their roles in an alleged $15 million Ponziesque swindle,…
Author: Dissent
UK: Derriford Hospital’s data losses revealed
Confidential data from Derriford Hospital has been lost or stolen 17 times during the past two years, health chiefs have admitted. The theft of seven hospital laptops, patient blood results being sent to the wrong address and members of the public accessing sensitive files are among data problems recorded since January 2007. The hospital revealed…
MW: Zain official in phone privacy breaches revealed
One I missed over the holidays. I think this is the first breach I’ve ever seen out of Malawi…. An official at Zain, Malawi’s second mobile operator has been exposed for invading the privacy of the network’s clients by secretly printing and making available data to Information Minister, Patricia Kaliati. The official, Francis Bisika has…
S. 141- Protecting the Privacy of Social Security Numbers Act
Senator Feinstein, introducing S.141 [pdf] in Congress today: Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce legislation to protect one of Americans’ most valuable but vulnerable assets: Social Security numbers. The bill I am introducing today aims to protect individual privacy and prevent identity theft by eliminating the unnecessary use and display of Social…
S. 139: Data Breach Notification Act
Senator Feinstein, introducing S. 139 [pdf] in Congress today: Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Data Breach Notification Act. This is a commonsense bill that is aimed at protecting personal information and preventing identity theft. The bill would require businesses and government agencies to notify individuals when their sensitive personal information has…
Data protection bills introduced in Congress today
The 111th Congress is now in session, and the first data-protection bills have been introduced today: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Tuesday introduced a pair of data security bills — one that would require businesses to notify consumers in the event of a security breach and another, co-sponsored by Sens. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and Olympia…