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…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
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…
Identity Theft Reported by Households, 2005-2010
U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics Report NCJ 236245 by Lynn Langton, BJS Statistician In 2010, 7.0% of households in the United States, or about 8.6 million households, had at least one member age 12 or older who experienced one or more types of identity theft victimization (figure 1). This percentage was similar to the 7.3%…
What They Didn’t Know: Big Brother Watch report on breaches highlights why we need mandatory disclosure
Mainstream media in the U.K. have picked up on a new report based on data obtained under freedom of information requests by Big Brother Watch (BBW). The Guardian reports, ” Councils breached personal data 1,035 times over three years,” while BBC’s headline is “Personal data ‘lost by 132 councils,” and eWeek’s headline is “132 Councils Named And…
Maybe we should prohibit school districts from maintaining electronic databases
Yes, I know that idea would send us back in time, but yet another ridiculous data breach involving a public school’s system being hacked by students has me pulling my hair out and wishing for more regulation or something. WXPI in Pennsylvania reports: Investigators said the hacking began in May on two students’ home computers….
Inspector General Tells National Credit Union Administration to Beef Up Security and Privacy Protections
The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is the United States independent federal agency that supervises and charters federal credit unions. Claude R. Marx reports: The NCUA needs to do a more thorough review of how it protects the privacy of its computer users and data, according to a report by the agency’s Office of Inspector…