There’s an update in litigation that stemmed from a medical privacy breach involving the Rensselaer County Jail and Samaritan Hospital in Troy, New York. It’s a case that I’ve blogged about a number of times since early 2013, when we first learned that employees of the jail had their medical records improperly accessed because a…
Category: Government Sector
OH: Private data accidentally exposed by Amherst police personnel
Steve Fogarty reports: Police personnel mistakenly posted online the Social Security numbers of about 30 people during a period when they were learning how to use a new record-management system. They appeared on accident reports that were posted online from the last few weeks of 2015 to the first few weeks of 2016, according to…
WA: Olympia man suspected of stealing hard drives from federal offices
Amelia Dickson reports: A Thurston County judge has set bail at $10,000 for Nicholas W. Perring, an Olympia man suspected of stealing hard drives containing names and Social Security numbers from a federal office. […] According to court documents, Perring is suspected of breaking into four offices, all at 701 Capitol Way S., on two…
Thailand: Sensitive info about tourists revealed in 2nd online data leak
Asian Correspondent reports: Another data leak involving foreigners in Thailand has apparently been uncovered barely a week after sensitive personal information of foreigners living in the country’s southern provinces was revealed to have been to be hidden in plain sight. This time the details of the foreign travelers, including their most recent vaccine shots, real names, nationalities, passport…
IRS Needs to Further Improve Controls over Financial and Taxpayer Data: GAO
The highlights of a new GAO report on the IRS: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made progress in implementing information security controls; however, weaknesses in the controls limited their effectiveness in protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of financial and sensitive taxpayer data. During fiscal year 2015, IRS continued to devote attention to securing its…
TX: Alto city office battles ransomware issue
Ransomware continues to hit smaller entities and not just big hospital systems. Jo Anne Embleton reports: Being struck by a software virus is every computer user’s worst fear, including Alto city officials, who are now having to deal with the aftermath of a ransomware virus. Earlier this month, the city utilities office was hit by…