Alice Lipowicz reports: The Social Security Administration should do more to protect against identity theft by increasing security controls on Social Security numbers and programs, according to two new federal audits. One of the audits targeted the millions of SSN printouts distributed by the agency each year, which have much looser security controls than Social…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Data Security: Your Information, Their Loot
According to the DataLossDB project run by the Open Source Foundation, hundreds of millions of medical records, bank account numbers, names, and addresses were stolen or accidentally leaked in 2011. Read the article by Evan Applegate in Bloomberg Businessweek.
2011 is the Year of the Hacktivist, Verizon Report Suggests
Robert McMillan reports: Postal workers, department store clerks and elves aren’t the only ones working like crazy this holiday season. For Bryan Sartin, it’s the busiest time of year. Sartin is a director of investigative response with Verizon Business. He’s the guy you call when you’ve been hacked and he usually doesn’t get much of…
In Push For Data, Schools Expose Students To Identity Theft
Over on Huffington Post, Gerry Smith is singing my tune about the education sector in terms of data security exposing students to the risk of identity theft. Here’s a snippet: But the U.S. Department of Education has warned schools not to use students’ Social Security numbers in their databases, urging them instead to create other unique identifiers. Social…
UK: Communications providers should log personal data security breaches monthly, Information Commissioner says
The ICO recommends the monthly report in a new section in its guidance on security breach notifications. Public electronic communications service providers must alert it in the event of any security breaches relating to users’ personal data. The guidance also states that if the breach is of a particularly serious nature, providers need to notify…
Credit unions want merchants held to same data security standards
The Credit Union National Association is pushing for change – and although there will be pushback from the merchant sector, a lot of what CUNA is pushing for is consistent with what privacy advocates want: Data security is a critical issue and the U.S. Congress should consider legislative changes to protect consumers, such as requiring…