Eric Tucker of Associated Press reports: The data breach at Target Corp. that exposed millions of credit card numbers has focused attention on the patchwork of state consumer notification laws and renewed a push for a single national standard. Most states have laws that require retailers to disclose data breaches, but the laws vary wildly….
AU: Asylum seeker data breach triggers court battles
Breaches have consequences. Bianca Hall reports further developments in a breach previously noted on this blog: The federal government will be forced to simultaneously fight dozens of court appeals later this month following a privacy breach, with about 40 asylum seekers preparing to launch appeals against their deportation in the Federal Circuit Court. The asylum…
Behind The Scenes—What One Major University Learned After A Data Breach
Jeanne Price of idRADAR interviewed a University of Maryland spokesperson about their recent breach. The interview provides a nice insider’s perspective on breach response, and you may wish to read it all here. Perhaps the most startling revelation was this one: UMD did not have a data breach crisis plan in place before the event,…
The Timken Company notifying 5,000 associates after data exposed on insecure server
Ohio-based The Timken Company, a global steel and bearing manufacturer and supplier, is notifying current and former associates and job applicants of a data security breach that occurred on January 30 and was discovered February 19. The breach occurred when a file containing personal information was stored on a server normally used for interchange of non-confidential information…
CA: San Juan Unified School District notifies parents of information security breach
Sharokina Shams reports: Officials at a Sacramento school district are notifying parents that records containing personal identifying information were found at the Southern California home of a wire fraud suspect. The San Juan Unified School District posted the information on its website Friday, one day after KCRA 3 informed the district that an FBI investigation had…
Audit finds high-risk security vulnerabilities in the automated systems used to process Medicaid claims
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of HHS recently released an audit that found pervasive high-risk security vulnerabilities at 10 state Medicaid agencies. The report is written so as not to provide a road map for attackers who might want to exploit the vulnerabilities but to raise awareness of concerns, i.e., the states are…