Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a final consent order settling charges that a company providing medical billing and revenue management services to hospitals in multiple states unfairly exposed sensitive consumer information to the risk of theft or misuse because of its inadequate data security measures. The FTC alleged that the Chicago-based company violated…
Oregon secretary of state website back online after hacker attack
KATU reports: Oregon’s secretary of state’s website was fully back in business Monday after “an unauthorized intrusion” earlier this month, according to the agency. […] When the intrusion was discovered Feb. 4, the agency shut down the state’s online business registry and campaign finance records. The state said the hackers didn’t get access to the…
Health magazine containing Social Security numbers on address labels mailed to 50,000 Medicare recipients
Cecilia Chan reports: The latest edition of Banner Health’s “Smart & Healthy Magazine” arrived to mailboxes over the weekend containing Social Security numbers of recipients on the address labels. “We try so hard to protect our Social Security number and then to have it publicized, it’s very disturbing,” Sun City West resident Janet Carlson said…
LabMD voluntarily dismisses its lawsuit against the FTC, but says they'll be back
After recently announcing it was winding down its operations as a result of the FTC’s protracted investigation and complaint against it, LabMD voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against the FTC last week. The chronology might suggest that the two events were related, but two people close to the case say that they are not related. LabMD’s…
IRS Criminal Investigation issues annual report
The Internal Revenue Service today announced the release of its IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) Annual Report for fiscal year 2013, reflecting significant increases in enforcement actions against tax criminals and a robust rise in convictions, including identity theft. CI investigates potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes in a manner…
OR: Office landlord fined after trashing mortgage records in course of eviction
Eliot Njus reports: The owners of a Northeast Portland office building have been fined after a state regulator said its cleaning service threw 30 boxes of mortgage records into an unlocked trash bin while evicting a mortgage company. The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services has ordered 122nd Group LLC to pay $5,000 for failing to…