Anna Junker reports: A former employee for Covenant Health has been fined after pleading guilty to knowingly accessing health information contrary to the Health Information Act. On Jan. 20, Amanda Vandenberg admitted to illegally accessing health records of 16 people on 465 occasions that occurred at the Misericordia Community Hospital where she was employed as…
Hackers infiltrated a big Facebook data partner to launch scams
Alfred Ng reports: When hackers take over your account on Facebook, it could mean you see suspicious posts about deals on Ray-Ban sunglasses, which are definitely bogus content. But when hackers take over a single account belonging to one of Facebook’s biggest data partners, it means a widespread campaign that could lead to thousands of dollars lost and…
PA: Meadville Medical Center investigating employee payroll data security incident
Keith Gushard reports: Meadville Medical Center is dealing with a data security incident involving its employee payroll system. The incident was discovered last week and involves only employee information at this point, according Don Rhoten, the hospital’s vice president of consumer engagement. The security problem “may have resulted in unauthorized access to the personal information of some…
The UK government to strengthen security of internet-connected products
January 27 — A new law will protect millions of users of internet-connected household items from the threat of cyber hacks, Digital Minister Matt Warman announced today. The plans, drawn up by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), will make sure all consumer smart devices sold in the UK adhere to the three…
The cyber attack the UN tried to keep under wraps
The New Humanitarian reports: While researching cybersecurity last November, we came across a confidential report about the UN. Networks and databases had been severely compromised – and almost no one we spoke to had heard about it. This article about that attack adds to The New Humanitarian’s previous coverage on humanitarian data. We look at how the…
NYS Comptroller Audit of Sackets Harbor Central School District – Information Technology (2019M-208)
The NYS Comptroller released another school district IT audit this week. I’ve been publishing these audit reports for a number of years now because they pretty much all show significant data security failures in protecting student and/or employee personal and sensitive information or assets. Sackets Harbor Central School District is a small school district. It…