Another lesson learned the hard way? In the aftermath of the theft of a Blue Cross Blue Shield laptop, Highmark, Inc. notified 50,000 doctors that their Social Security numbers or tax ID numbers were on the stolen laptop containing their unencrypted data. A BCBS employee had reportedly breached policy by downloading the unencrypted database to…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Hannaford breach case not over yet
Trevor Maxwell reports: Just as a potential class-action lawsuit against Hannaford Bros. appeared dead, there’s a glimmer of hope this week for consumers who hope to recover damages from the Scarborough-based grocer for a massive electronic data theft in late 2007 and early 2008. The federal judge overseeing the case plans to ask Maine’s highest…
Lawsuit: Heartland Knew Data Security Standard was ‘Insufficient’
Linda McClasson reports: Months before announcing the Heartland Payment Systems (HPY) data breach, company CEO Robert Carr told industry analysts that the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was an insufficient protective measure. This is the contention of a new master complaint filed in the class action suit against Heartland, which in January…
Better safe than sorry: Express Scripts should notify everyone
Almost a year after it was contacted by an extortionist, pharmacy benefits management company Express Scripts first learned that the extortionist was in possession of at least 700,000 more members’ personal information than they originally knew about. The company has now notified those individuals, but how many other members may also be affected? It’s time…
Breach reports involving paper records increase – ITRC
The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has released an interim report that reveals that breaches involving paper records appear to be increasing significantly compared to last year while the number of incidents involving electronic records has not showed a similar increase. According to a press release today, paper breaches currently account for 25% of all…
AU: One in five fall victim to ID theft
Nick Gardner reports: The identity crimes report, which was commissioned by credit company Veda Advantage and conducted by Galaxy Research, found more than 1.5 million people’s credit cards had been skimmed and 1.2 million people’s bank accounts were illegally accessed. Many more people’s mail containing PINs and other information that can be used to create…