On Feb. 28, a media report, noted on this blog, indicated that a man in Oregon kept receiving faxes with patient data. When he tracked the number down, it seemed that the faxes came from Community Memorial Hospital in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Contacted by TMJ4 News, the hospital told the reporter that United Healthcare was…
Thieves Jam Up Smucker’s, Card Processor (update 1)
Brian Krebs reports: Jam and jelly maker Smucker’s last week shuttered its online store, notifying visitors that the site was being retooled because of a security breach that jeopardized customers’ credit card data. Closer examination of the attack suggests that the company was but one of several dozen firms — including at least one credit card processor — hacked…
Ca: Island Health offers apologies over privacy breach
There’s a follow-up to a breach reported recently in this blog. John Harding reports: Island Health is apologizing for a breach of privacy that put personal information of its clients up for sale at a local thrift shop. The NEWS broke the story of the breach in its Thursday edition. A local woman purchased file…
B.C. civil servant fired over privacy breach was rehired Monday
Cindy Harnett reports the latest development in a privacy breach affecting millions of Canadians whose data were shared with researchers without their consent. In the first public settlement to arise out of a sweeping two-year Health Ministry investigation, a B.C. civil servant was rehired Monday. Robert Neil Hart, one of seven who lost jobs as…
AU: Thousands of university academic union members made public
Julie Hare reports: The names and details of thousands of university academic union members have been accidentally made public. Lists of names, contact details and positions of the National Tertiary Education Union‘s members at five universities appear to have been collated with the intention of contacting each person to solicit funds to support a campaign…
Twitter tested as monitor of HIV risk
Bernie Monegain reports: A new UCLA-led study suggests that real-time social media, such as Twitter could be used to track HIV and drug related behavior to detect potential outbreaks – and ultimately, as a tool for prevention efforts. The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Preventive Medicine, suggests it may be possible to predict sexual risk…