CBC reports Northwestel has contacted 25 people to apologize after information from customer requests for digital TV was exposed on its website. The information may have included phone numbers as well as postal and e-mail addresses. Read more on CBC.
At long last, Congress passes law to strip Social Security numbers from Medicare cards
Robert Pear reports that although the federal government already prohibits private insurers using Social Security numbers on insurance cards when they provide benefits under contract with Medicare, Medicare itself has continued to issue new Medicare cards with Social Security numbers imprinted on them. And as anyone who hasn’t been asleep through the past decade knows, that’s been a recipe…
I want his memory skills!
It’s a shame this man’s memory skills weren’t put to other, and lawful, use: Man accused of memorizing stolen credit card info to pay for luxury hotels
CA: VA hospital in Long Beach may have improperly disposed of patients’ information
Leanne Suter reports: Documents containing the personal information of veterans seeking treatment at the Veterans Affairs Long Beach Hospital may have been improperly disposed, Veterans Affairs officials said. Army veteran and hospital patient Paulnhu Nguyen said he found a large stack of patient records containing personal information, such as social security numbers, date of births…
Under the Protection of Personal Information Act, no more data loss coverups for South African businesses
Jos Floor of Floor Swart writes: South Africa has a historical culture of non-disclosure and cover-ups when it comes to data loss and data breaches – but, the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act will force much greater transparency. The Act establishes eight data protection principles or conditions, one of which is that responsible parties…
NZ: Preliminary review reveals no improper data access to shared online medical records
Nicole Mathewson reports that so far, everyone’s been on good behavior and has not misused access to the online database: Nearly 500 instances of Canterbury health professionals accessing patient medical records have been reviewed since the country’s first online health database was launched, but all were found to be legitimate queries. … The Canterbury District…