Simon Murphy reports: Personal details of more than 16,000 residents were lost when a council’s computer memory stick went missing. A series of data protection blunders by West Sussex County Council since 2008 have left the personal information of children and adults at risk. Children’s case material, court records, and social care reports were among 60 breaches,…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Two years later, Texas parent who reported a breach gets prosecutors off his back and his laptop returned
A Texas parent who reported a school district security breach involving sensitive student records spent the next two years facing federal charges and trying to get his laptop back Back in August 2009, DataBreaches.net reported that a parent had his work and personal computers seized by the FBI after he reported a security breach to his…
Survey Says Only 18 Percent of Colleges Believe Their Security Access Control Is Effective
Data from independent research, Effective Management of Safe & Secure Openings & Identities, shows 82 percent of public, private and 2-year specialized colleges and universities believe they are not very effective at managing safe and secure openings or identities. Only 18 percent believe they are very effective at granting or denying access to appropriate individuals or…
Breaches: Study Shows Over 806.2 Million Records Disclosed, Estimated Cost of $156.7 Billion
I’m still playing catch-up with everything I missed thanks to NatGrid’s profound incompetence in restoring power after a tropical storm knocked us offline. Here’s a press release I had missed: The Digital Forensics Association announces the release of their second annual data breach report. “The Leaking Vault 2011- Six Years of Data Breaches” analyzes 3,765…
HHS submits its annual report to Congress on breaches
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has submitted its mandated report to Congress on breach reports it has received. The report covers incidents reported between September 23, 2009 (the date the breach notification requirements became effective), and December 31, 2010. Here are some of the highlights of the report:…
North Carolina psychologist settles state charges for dumping patients’ records, agrees to pay $40,000
The following press release from North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper is a follow-up to a breach previously covered on PHIprivacy.net: Dr. Ervin Batchelor of the Carolina Center for Development and Rehabilitation in Charlotte has paid $40,000 for illegally dumping files containing patients’ financial and medical information, Attorney General Roy Cooper announced Wednesday. “Any business you entrust with your information has a…