Katie Johnston of the Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has sued Duxbury lawyer and real estate broker Michael Haney after approximately 120 boxes with his clients’ real estate closing files were found “waterlogged and exposed to the elements” on a former client’s property in 2014. More than 1,200 Massachusetts residents are thought…
Category: Exposure
FTC e-mail gaffe reveals 600 attendees’ email addresses before privacy conference
Laura Hautala reports: Maybe I’m naive to expect a certain savviness about privacy from the FTC, especially just before it convenes a group of experts in privacy and cybersecurity at a conference in Washington, DC, next week. I certainly didn’t expect the agency to accidentally send out a list of every attendee’s email address. But,…
Personal info of 60 Ohioans in records given out
Randy Ludlow reports: A state agency mistakenly turned over the personal information and bank-account numbers of about 60 Ohioans to a pair of vendors, including one that sent the records to be copied by a third party. Officials of the MARCS emergency-communications system within the Department of Administrative Services didn’t notify people whose Social Security,…
ICO takes enforcement action against Alzheimer’s Society (UPDATED)
From the ICO: The ICO has found serious failings in the way volunteers at a national dementia support charity handled sensitive personal data. It has orderedThe Alzheimer’s Society to take action after discovering that volunteers were using personal email addresses to receive and share information about people who use the charity, storing unencrypted data on…
Southern New Hampshire U. still investigating database leak exposing over 140,000 records
Steve Ragan reports: Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) says they’re still investigating how a database containing some student and class information was exposed to the public. The database was discovered by researcher Chris Vickery shortly before Christmas. Vickery turned to Salted Hash for assistance in resolving the matter, as previous attempts to contact the university…
Bucking Clapper? Massachusetts court holds patients have standing to sue based on mere exposure of data alone
In August, 2014, I noted a report involving a transcription contractor of Boston Medical Center exposing patient information on the Internet. BMC notified approximately 15,000 patients and fired MDF Transcription Services because of the incident. Of note, BMC told patients in a notification letter that it had no reason to believe their information had been misused…