David Navetta writes: With the report of another data security-related lawsuit involving online banking (another 2009 lawsuit referenced here involved an alleged loss of over $500,000), and a recent victory for a plaintiff on a summary judgment motion in a similar online banking data security breach case, the question arises whether online banking breaches will…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Health care: A ‘goldmine’ for fraudsters
Parija Kavilanz reports: There’s a group of people who really love the U.S. health care system — the fraudsters, scammers and organized criminal gangs who are bilking the system of as much as $100 billion a year. Health care identity theft dominated all other crimes in the sector last year, according to Louis Saccoccio, executive…
New Chinese Tort Liability Law Contains Provisions Affecting Personal Data
Hunton & Williams provide more details on the newly passed Chinese tort law: Certain of its provisions relate, expressly or in a general sense, to personal information. These provisions can cause data users to incur liability to data subjects for the mishandling of personal information. In particular: The law (at Articles 2 and 6) states…
Recovery firms may steal your data
Judi Hasson reports: […] A new survey finds that data-recovery services are responsible for a growing chunk of privacy breach incidents. It’s not really a surprise. An outside vendor contracted to repair your computer may not have the security mechanisms in place to prevent a theft. Or the company may have IT workers willing to…
Hacking Takes Lead as Top Cause of Data Breaches
Hacking has topped human error as the top cause of reported data breaches for the first time since such tracking began in 2007, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2009 Breach Report. In its report, titled “Data Breaches: The Insanity Continues,” the non-profit ITRC found that 19.5 percent of reported breaches were due to…
Ie: Revenue set up VIP unit (but don’t the little people deserve privacy too?)
TJ McIntyre writes: One recent story which didn’t attract as much attention as it should have was the revelation that the Revenue have set up a special VIP unit to minimise leaks of confidential information about public figures. This emerged with the publication of an audit by the Data Protection Commissioner which found significant weaknesses…