Venkat Balasubramani discusses two recent court decisions that turned data breach plaintiffs away. The first case is the Hannaford case, discussed previously on this blog, but I was surprised to learn that the Providence Health System breach finally was decided: Paul v. Providence Health System-Oregon, (Ore. Ct. App. Oct. 6, 2010): this case involved the…
Category: U.S.
Cancer researcher fights UNC demotion over data breach (updated)
Gregory Childress reports that a data breach had significant consequences for a researcher. Because I don’t recall ever seeing such consequences before, I think this is pretty newsworthy: A UNC cancer researcher is fighting a demotion and pay cut she received after a security breach in the medical study she directs. Bonnie Yankaskas, a professor in…
Hacked D.C. online voting system stored login and encryption key on server
Kim Zetter writes: An internet-based voting system that was hacked last week by researchers at the University of Michigan stored its database username, password and encryption key on a server open to attack. Alex Halderman, a computer scientist at the university, has detailed the vulnerabilities and hacking techniques his students used to completely control the system…
Employee of Akamai Technologies charged with wire fraud in spying sting
Another reminder about insiders, even though in this case, no confidential data was actually compromised because a would-be spy delivered the information to an undercover federal agent. From the press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts, a case first reported by Elizabeth Heichler on Computerworld: An employee of a high technology company headquartered…
IN: Dozens of debit/credit card numbers stolen in Porter County
Ken Kosky reports: Valparaiso and Porter County police are alerting the public that dozens of people’s debit/credit cards numbers have been compromised. Police said at least 36 people have reported that their numbers have been used fraudulently in Georgia, Florida and other states. The loss is several thousand dollars. Law enforcement is trying to identify…
Dumped Medical Files Put Dozens of Omaha Patients at Risk
Molli Graham reports: Thanks to an alert viewer, KMTV Action 3 News uncovers a frightening find that could put hundreds of people’s personal information in danger. Names, social security numbers, and sensitive medical records are left for anyone to find. We’re taking action to protect those records and get you answers. On Tuesday night, we tracked…