ChoicePoint, Inc., one of the nation’s largest data brokers, has agreed to strengthened data security requirements to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the company failed to implement a comprehensive information security program protecting consumers’ sensitive information, as required by a previous court order. This failure left the door open to a data breach in…
Category: Of Note
Two major German websites report data theft
AP/Reuters reports two data breaches out of Germany: SchülerVZ, an online forum for German teenagers and high school students, has said it has identified the person it suspects of stealing the data, which include the name, age, school, gender, and photo of thousands of users. A more serious breach involves the names, client numbers, addresses,…
UK: Private medical records for sale
Jo Macfarlane reports: The confidential medical records of patients treated at one of Britain’s top private hospitals have been illegally sold to undercover investigators. Hundreds of files containing intimate details of patients’ conditions, home addresses and dates of birth are being offered for as little as £4 each. The files were sold by two men…
PayChoice Suffers Another Data Breach
Brian Krebs reports: Payroll services provider PayChoice took its Web-based service offline for the second time in a month on Wednesday in response to yet another data breach caused by hackers. Moorestown, N.J. based PayChoice, provides direct payroll processing services and licenses its online employee payroll management product to at least 240 other payroll processing…
Knowing or reckless misuse of personal data – introducing custodial sentences
From the UK Ministry of Justice: Reference Number : CP22/09 Status: Open Open date: 15 October 2009 Close date: 07 January 2010 A consultation on exercising the power to provide for custodial sanctions for those found guilty of knowingly or recklessly obtaining, disclosing, selling or procuring the disclosure of personal data without the consent of…
Lawsuit: 29,000 say Kaiser hid security breach
Maria Dinzeo reports on a class action lawsuit stemming from a 2007 breach that was first reported earlier this year: Twenty-nine thousand Kaiser employees say the company did not inform them for more than a year about a security breach that left their personal information vulnerable to thieves. One employee says a woman stole her…