Jon Ungoed-Thomas reports: A billion NHS records containing details of patients’hospital admissions and operations have been sold to a marketing consultancy working for some of the world’s biggest drug companies, The Sunday Times can reveal. Harvey Walsh, a healthcare intelligence company, has paid for a database that, although stripped of names and addresses, does include…
Missed Alarms and 40 Million Stolen Credit Card Numbers: How Target Blew It
I finally got around to reading this fascinating report by Michael Riley, Ben Elgin, Dune Lawrence, and Carol Matlack for Bloomberg Businessweek. This goes far beyond other media coverage about how Target “missed” or “ignored” FireEye alerts and really gives more details of how the breach occurred.
UK: Police officers suspended in crackdown on illegal snooping
David Leask reports: Dozens of Scottish police officers are under criminal investigation in a clampdown on data breaches involving the force computer system. A total of 43 officers have been put on to restricted duties and another officer has been suspended, solely because of allegations of illegally accessing confidential information. Read more on Herald Scotland….
Ca: 6,000 former high school students’ information exposed
Laura Cudworth reports: About 6,000 former high school students had personal information compromised after a staff member at the Avon Maitland District School Board transferred the files electronically. The board was alerted to the security breach, which lasted about five weeks, when a former student did a search of her own name and was able…
Be Careful Beating Up Target (Part 1)
Craig Carpenter of AccessData writes: A flurry of stories surfaced this week, including those in Bloomberg BusinessWeek and InformationWeek, highlighting signals of compromise that Target apparently “missed” or even “ignored”, resulting in the theft of 40 million credit card accounts. Clearly the Target breach was serious and wide-ranging, as it affected a large number of customers and even hit…
MN: Former state employee who led ID theft ring gets 4.5 years
Emily Gurnon reports: A former state Department of Labor and Industry worker was sentenced Friday to 4-1/2 years in prison for her role in a broad identity-theft ring. Roxanne Kay DeFlorin was the last of four defendants sentenced in Ramsey County District Court in the scheme, which included DeFlorin’s theft of identities from her job….