The Information Commissioner today served two organizations with the first monetary penalties for what he characterized as serious breaches of the Data Protection Act. The first penalty, of £100,000, was issued to Hertfordshire County Council for two serious incidents where council employees faxed highly sensitive personal information to the wrong recipients. The first case, involving…
Category: Of Note
Puerto Rico Dept of Health reports breach affecting 400,000; Triple-S Salud fined $100k
The Puerto Rico Department of Health has reported a security breach to HHS involving Triple-S Management and Corp. and Triple-S Salud, Inc. Triple-S Management is a managed care company while Triple-S Salud (Triple Health) is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association for Puerto Rico. The breach was reported to HHS…
Federal Reserve Hacker Steals 400,000 Credit Card Numbers: Feds
Jonathan Dienst reports: A Malaysian man hacked his way into the Federal Reserve Bank’s computers in Cleveland and also had more than 400,000 stolen credit card numbers when Secret Service agents finally caught up with him, federal prosecutors said. Lin Mun Poo was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport last month as he traveled to…
Liberty Coalition gives University of Hawaii an ‘F’ for data breaches
In a news report headlined, “Data breaches earn UH an ‘F’,” Gordon Y.K. Pang reports: A national organization has given the University of Hawaii a grade of “F” for online security breaches that exposed Social Security numbers and other sensitive information in nearly 260,000 records. The Liberty Coalition, a nonprofit civil liberties watchdog group, yesterday…
NU students’ financial aid information posted on state treasurer’s website
Alissa Skelton reports: The University of Nebraska has asked the state treasurer to remove thousands of students’ classified financial aid and loan information that was published on a state spending website. But State Treasurer Shane Osborn said Saturday that’s impossible for his agency to do with limited staff and resources. “We don’t want to put…
New FTC portal to assist businesses in complying with privacy and security laws
From the FTC’s press release: The Federal Trade Commission has a new Business Center at Business.ftc.gov that gives business owners, attorneys, and marketing professionals the tools they need to understand and comply with the consumer protection laws, rules, and guides the FTC enforces. The Business Center provides practical, plain-language guidance about advertising, credit, telemarketing, privacy, and a host…