The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) describes itself as the world’s largest technical professional organization with over 365,000 members worldwide, but some of its members may be feeling a bit beleaguered after receiving what may be their second breach notice in as many months. In February, the association notified 828 members that an…
Category: Exposure
CA: “Embarrassing” Files Found Outside Blockbuster
Bob Hansen reports: The Blockbuster store in Mission Valley was being cleaned out for the last time. The video store chain is in bankruptcy and one worker was finishing up at the store. That’s when privacy rights expert Beth Givens happened to walk by and she was shocked by what she found. “A box called…
OH: COTC students’ personal information left unsecured
Jessie Balmert reports: An error sent more that 600 Central Ohio Technical College students’ personal information to storage at Apple Tree Auction Center, where they were left unsecured for less than 24 hours. On March 10, the Student Records Management Office was moving to another location in the same building when an enclosed file cabinet…
UK: Norwich college dumps students’ files in skip
Ben Woods reports: Piles of documents revealing student names, photographs, addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and some files exposing sensitive medical information, were found in bin bags at City College. An investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found the college on Ipswich Road had adequate procedures and policies for dealing with personal information,…
MA: Computer access breach exposed UMass Memorial pay stub data
Lee Hammel reports: Personal pay stub information of some UMass Memorial Healthcare employees was subject to unauthorized access for five months. The organization learned March 10 that at 10 kiosks where employees could view their pay stub information, and also at shared workstations, subsequent users were able to access the information of previous users, according…
Comptroller offers discount on credit monitoring after data breach
I read the following news story by Dan Wallach and thought, “Are you kidding me?!” The Texas Comptroller’s office has arranged for individuals affected by an inadvertent exposure of personal data to receive a 70 percent discount on one year of credit monitoring to alert them if their information is misused. On Monday, the comptroller’s office…