Denise G. Callahan reports: The Butler County commissioners approved a two-day, unpaid suspension for an employee who inadvertently sent out an email with wellness information regarding the county’s health insurance, which might have violated HIPAA laws. Shawna Smith, the county’s wellness coordinator, sent out an email in September with a spreadsheet that included hidden columns…
Category: Government Sector
N.W.T. gov’t and former employee settle case over alleged privacy breach
Sidney Cohen reports: A former manager in the N.W.T. Justice Department has been ordered to destroy all records he has about his old colleagues, putting an end to a months-long skirmish over employee privacy between him and the territorial government. “[The government] sued me, we settled, I think I’m done … for now,” Donn MacDougall…
Privacy body probes ‘gaps’ in FOI website interface after data leak
ABS-CBN reports: The National Privacy Commission (NPC) is looking into “gaps” in the interface of the government’s Freedom of Information website that may have caused the leak of data on users who requested documents from the website, one of the agency’s commissioners said Saturday. Columnist Wilson Chua earlier said the ID he used on government…
FEMA exposed personal information of 2.3 million disaster victims
Caroline Linton reports: FEMA mistakenly exposed personal information, including addresses and bank account information, of 2.3 million disaster victims, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General said in a report released Friday. The breach occurred because FEMA did not ensure a private contractor only received information it required to perform its official duties, the report said….
HIV data leak: Mikhy Farrera Brochez pleads not guilty in US court
Chris Kenning reports the latest development in a case this site has been following since January (search “Brochez” for other coverage). Mikhy Farrera Brochez on Tuesday (Mar 19) pleaded not guilty in a US federal court in Kentucky to charges related to stolen identification documents from Singapore’s HIV registry, according to his lawyer Jay Oakley. The American, who is…
NC: Hackers demand ransom from Orange County for 3rd time in 6 years
Holden Kurwicki reports: A local county is being held hostage by hackers who could have access to your private information at their fingertips. The Orange County IT Department is working hand in hand with outside agencies to hunt down hackers who have invaded county computer servers with ransomware. [..] “We have public computers at the…