Elaine Edwards reports: Action is needed to tackle deficiencies in how the public service protects the personal data of citizens before such action is triggered by a “crisis”, the Data Protection Commissioner has said. Billy Hawkes was speaking today on the publication of his annual report for 2013, which is his final annual report in the…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Florida firm denies link to UPMC data breach
Associated Press reports: A University of Pittsburgh Medical Center employee has sued the hospital network for credit restoration services and identity theft insurance in the wake of a data breach that has seen hackers use the personal information of hundreds of employees to file bogus federal income tax returns. Alice Patrick, who works at UPMC…
UK: Met Police in dock as probe reveals over 300 data breaches
An investigation into the data protection practices of the Metropolitan Police – the UK’s biggest force – has exposed a litany of data breaches, with a charge-sheet that includes officers even handing information to underworld figures. In total there were 300 breaches of data protection rules at The Met between 2009 and 2013 but the…
In his words: How a whitehat hacked a university and became an FBI target
Sean Gallagher reports on the hack of U. Maryland that got a contractor’s former employee in hot water with the FBI: David Helkowski stood waiting outside a restaurant in Towson, Maryland, fresh from a visit to the unemployment office. Recently let go from his computer consulting job after engaging in some “freelance hacking” of a…
FTC told to disclose the data security standards it uses for data security enforcement actions
Jaikumar Vijayan reports: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) can be compelled to disclose details of the data security standards it uses to pursue enforcement action against companies that suffer data breaches, the agency’s chief administrative law judge ruled Thursday. The decision came in response to a motion filed by LabMD, a now-defunct medical laboratory that…
Ex-Insider Sounds Alarm On Hotel And Restaurant Data Security
Last week, I linked to a report from Consumer Reports that contained a somewhat startling allegation by the former director of security compliance for Wyndham: Now, David Durko, former director of Wyndham’s security compliance management, says that many independently owned and operated Wyndham hotels doing business under the Super 8 brand name don’t comply with Payment…