Vulnerable people in the world’s troublespots could be at risk because of sloppy handling of sensitive data by a UN agency, according to an internal audit. In response, the World Food Programme told IRIN it was “working to get ahead of the curve” on data-handling, would address weaknesses, and spend more on systems. Read Ben…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Health Data Breaches in 2017: The Year in Review
Protenus, Inc. has released its 2017 review of breaches involving health data. It is the second annual review they have published since we began collaborating on data collection and analyses. As a reminder of last year’s major findings: Protenus reported that in 2016, insider incidents constituted approximately 43% of the 450 incidents we had compiled…
December was one of the busiest months for health data breach disclosures
While you are eagerly awaiting the release of Protenus’s annual review of 2017 health data breaches, I thought I’d mention that December closed the year out with a bang with 52 possible breaches being disclosed. Only June, 2017 (with 53 reports) exceeded December. Of the 52 entries, 20 were hacking incidents and 17 were insider…
Security Breaches Don’t Affect Stock Price
Ah, I’m having flashbacks to the days when some of us debated whether the TJ Maxx breach would have any significant impact and how could we determine impact. Bruce Schneier cites a research report,“Long-term market implications of data breaches, not,” by Russell Lange and Eric W. Burger. From key findings: While the difference in…
CareFirst makes final push for Supreme Court to hear breach case
Jessica Davis reports: Maryland-based CareFirst has filed a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its data breach case, arguing that without a high court review, companies in every sector will be hit with a “flood” of data breach lawsuits in the future. The appeal stems from a decision by the U.S. Court…
MailChimp Found Leaking Email Addresses
Tara Seals reports: MailChimp, the bulk email company responsible for sending millions of newsletters, promotional mail and other mass communiques every day, has been leaking respondents’ email addresses. Security researcher Terence Eden found what he termed “an annoying privacy violation,” adding that the issue can expose personal information. The issue is this: When a respondent…