See the companion press release from the FTC in a previous post. Rite Aid Corporation and its 40 affiliated entities (RAC) have agreed to pay $1 million to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today….
Category: Of Note
Rite Aid Settles FTC Charges That It Failed to Protect Medical and Financial Privacy of Customers and Employees
The following is the FTC’s press release. In the next post, I’ll publish HHS’s press release on their settlement with Rite Aid. Rite Aid Corporation has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it failed to protect the sensitive financial and medical information of its customers and employees, in violation of federal law. In…
Schools risk theft of SS numbers of children
Matthew Cella reports: Schools are putting children at risk of identity fraud by obtaining their Social Security numbers when it is not required by law and often unnecessary, the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General has concluded. Some school systems in at least 26 states collect the nine-digit identifiers when students from kindergarten through…
University of Texas Arlington server containing medical records and SSN hacked
From UTA’s web site: The University of Texas at Arlington recently learned that one of its file servers had been compromised, which potentially exposed the prescription records of approximately 27,000 individuals to an unauthorized source. Federal and state authorities have been notified, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Texas Department of…
AU: Bolton loses his battle for Bottle
A costly consequence of security breaches. Ben Butler reports: Corporate raider Nicholas Bolton has lost his legal battle with internet domain-name regulator auDA over a security breach at his domain-name business. On Monday, auDa will take over about 10,000 customers who registered domain names through Mr Bolton’s company, Australian Style. The transfer can go ahead…
Colorado agency notifies 105,470 clients of stolen hard drive
The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing is notifying 105,470 clients receiving state-provided health insurance that a stolen hard drive contained some of their personal information. A statement on the agency’s web site does not provide much detail and simply says: State officials discovered that there was an unauthorized removal of a computer…