Elaine Edwards reports: The Data Protection Commissioner considered telling organisations to stop allowing information such as mothers’ maiden names to be used for security questions after millions of personal records were published on a government genealogy site last year. In July last year, then commissioner Billy Hawkes threatened to take enforcement action against the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht after…
Category: Exposure
NZ: Email outs vulnerable students
The New Zealand Herald reports: Vulnerable university students had their privacy breached in an email asking them to rate their experiences with counselling services. Dozens of Massey University students’ email addresses and names were visible in the message sent last month, in what the Privacy Commissioner’s office said was a breach of private information. A…
VA: Teacher’s file contains personal info on others
Jeremy Lazarus reports: If you teach or have taught for Richmond Public Schools, your colleagues may have access to your personal information. The disclosure that the RPS Human Resources Department is failing to guard confidential records came from a former teacher who found her personnel file contained information it should not have, including Social Security…
AU: A junior Defence staffer allegedly took home an intelligence report and posted it online
Christopher Knaus and Michael Inman report: An Australian spy agency says it has no way of knowing who has obtained a “highly sensitive” report meant for our top allies after it was allegedly leaked by a junior defence bureaucrat on an online forum. In an embarrassing security breach, a 21-year-old Department of Defence graduate allegedly managed to download a secret…
Ca: “Dr. Disgrace” 1st to face Manitoba’s PHIA charges
Dean Pritchard reports: A former city doctor with a host of prior legal woes was back in Winnipeg court Friday charged with abandoning thousands of patient medical records at his shuttered medical clinic. George Korol, 62, pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to protect personal health information and was fined $5,000. Korol is the…
Prima CARE notifying patients after binders with protected health information found in bushes
According to its web site, Prima CARE, P.C. is a large, multi-specialty medical group serving southeastern New England. Also according to their web site, a former employee improperly discarded binders with protected health information. A notice linked from their home page explains: Prima CARE has Recovered Documents Containing Patient Information On June 4, 2015, Prima CARE…