Lora Hines reports: Community Hospital of San Bernardino has been fined a total of $325,000 for breaches of more than 200 patient records by two employees in 2009. Community Hospital is one of five facilities statewide recently fined $675,000 for unauthorized access of nearly 230 medical records for more than 200 patients in violation of…
Category: Of Note
Apple’s Worst Security Breach: 114,000 iPad Owners Exposed
Ryan Tate writes: Apple has suffered another embarrassment. A security breach has exposed iPad owners including dozens of CEOs, military officials, and top politicians. They—and every other buyer of the wireless-enabled tablet—could be vulnerable to spam marketing and malicious hacking. […] The specific information exposed in the breach included subscribers’ email addresses, coupled with an…
UK: Data Protection Act is out of kilter with EU law, warns privacy lawyer
Warwick Ashford reports: The single most important change required in UK data protection regulation is to bring the law into line with European legislation, says Stewart Room, partner at law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse. Section 13 of the UK Data Protection Act (DPA) is totally out of kilter with the EU directive on personal data,…
Crooks Steal $644,000 from NYC Department of Education
Michael Cheek reports: Hackers have defrauded the New York City’s Department of Education of more than $644,000 by targeting an online bank account used to manage petty cash expenditures, according to investigators. The Department of Education’s bank account with JPMorgan Chase was supposed to have a $500 limit but, due to an oversight, any amount…
Appeals court absolves firm that exposed man’s SSN
What constitutes a privacy harm? For those of us covering data breaches and privacy breaches, there’s been a somewhat disturbing trend by courts to restrict the notion of “harm” to unreimbursed financial harm due to a breach. Worry, embarrassment, time lost, and increased risk of future harm are recognized as being consequences, but generally, plaintiffs…
Digital River sues over data breach
Dan Browning reports: A massive data theft from the e-commerce company Digital River Inc. has led investigators to hackers in India and a 20-year-old in New York who allegedly tried to sell the information to a Colorado marketing firm for half a million dollars. The Eden Prairie company obtained a secret court order last month…