This is one of those really terrible breaches that are the stuff of nightmares. Brendan Carlin reports: Vulnerable victims of sex crimes have reacted with panic and fury after highly sensitive videos of their police interviews were stolen in an ‘unacceptable’ breach of security. The theft of computers containing the statements sparked disbelief among witnesses…
Category: Uncategorized
Not just policies and padlocks: how inadvertent errors in handling medical records can lead to trouble
Peter Leonard of Gilbert & Tobin writes: On 13 December 2013, the Australian Privacy Commissioner (the Commissioner) opened an own motion investigation into Pound Road Medical Centre (PRMC). This was in response to media reports that there were boxes of unsecured medical records at 16 Amberley Park Drive, Narre Warren South (the site), which PRMC…
California Supreme Court to Hear Privacy Challenge to Prescription Database Statute
Kenneth Ofgang reports: The California Supreme Court has agreed to determine whether healthcare regulators violated the state Constitution’s privacy clause when they accessed a local doctor’s prescribing records as part of an investigation into claims of unprofessional conduct. The justices, at their weekly conference in San Francisco Wednesday, voted 5-0 to review the ruling of…
Oh, so that's what happened?
One of the (all too many) frustrations with trying to learn from HHS’s public breach tool is that they do not let us know when they’ve updated an older entry or closed an investigation. In December of 2012, I had reported three additions to the breach tool for which I could find no information online….
SC: Jury begins mulling charges against Williamsburg County sheriff in novel fraud scheme (UPDATED with verdicts)
John Monk reports: A federal jury on Friday afternoon began deliberating the case in which the suspended Williamsburg County sheriff and a Columbia businessman were charged with fraud in connection with a scheme involving hundreds of alleged false identity theft reports. Earlier Friday, the jury heard lawyers’ closing arguments that offered sharp contrasts of Michael…
Over 20 million attempts to hack into health database
Is your security up to this challenge? Simon Hartley reports: Police are investigating after attempts were allegedly made to hack a nationwide patient database. In an email obtained by the Otago Daily Times, Southern Primary Health Organisation clinical adviser Keith Abbott, of Dunedin, warned GPs and health organisations about the ”significant hacking attempt” on September 9….