In August, 2014, I noted a report involving a transcription contractor of Boston Medical Center exposing patient information on the Internet. BMC notified approximately 15,000 patients and fired MDF Transcription Services because of the incident. Of note, BMC told patients in a notification letter that it had no reason to believe their information had been misused…
Category: U.S.
OH: Regional Income Tax Agency loses DVD with personal info for 50,000 people, offers free credit monitoring
Bruce Geiselman reports: The Regional Income Tax Agency announced Dec. 31 that nearly two months earlier it lost personal data for about 50,000 people who filed tax forms with the agency. A backup DVD with the information cannot be located, according to RITA. The agency says it will provide one-year of free credit monitoring to those affected. Read…
Did a Christian right-wing organization expose private details of millions of people?
First someone left our voter registration details exposed to the world, but those were “just public records,” some argued. Now a second misconfigured database has been uncovered by Chris Vickery. This one, however, not only includes some states’ voter lists, but it also includes 19 million profiles with private information on religion, household values, gun ownership…
Nigerian charged in email scam is in custody in Dallas
Kevin Krause reports: A Nigerian man living in the U.S. on a student visa faces federal wire fraud charges in connection with a sophisticated email phishing scam targeting businesses. Amechi Colvis Amuegbunam, 28, of Lagos, Nigeria, was arrested in Baltimore in August and charged with scamming 17 North Texas companies out of more than $600,000…
Hillsides, a Pasadena child welfare agency, warns of data breach
Brian Day reports on another insider breach involving a HIPAA-covered entity: A Pasadena child welfare agency has warned of a computer security breach that may have exposed the personal information of nearly 1,000 clients and staff members. Hillsides, 940 Avenue 64, announced the data breach Wednesday. It was first discovered Dec. 8, when Hillsides officials…
Microsoft failed to warn victims of Chinese email hack–former employees
Joseph Menn reports on some poor decision-making by Microsoft that left hacking victims in the dark that their communications had been intercepted: Microsoft Corp experts concluded several years ago that Chinese authorities had hacked into more than a thousand Hotmail email accounts, targeting international leaders of China’s Tibetan and Uighur minorities in particular – but…