Kim Zetter reports: The FBI has arrested the San Francisco man they say ran Silk Road, the notorious underground digital bazaar that allowed traffickers to anonymously peddle heroin, cocaine and nearly anything else illegal. Ross William Ulbricht, 29, who allegedly operated the site as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” was charged in the Southern District of New…
Opening The Flood Gates? California Voters May Create Presumption Of Harm In Privacy Breach Cases
Julian D. Perlman of BakerHostetler writes: California has moved one step closer towards amending its Constitution to create a presumption of harm whenever personal data is shared without a consumer’s express opt-in, a change that would clear a significant hurdle to many privacy breach lawsuits. On Thursday, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen approved steps…
A Business Associate Agreement Dilemma: To Indemnify or Not to Indemnify – Ten Considerations
Michael Kline writes: A party (Party) to a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) or Subcontractor Agreement (SCA), whether a covered entity (CE), business associate (BA) or subcontractor (SC), may struggle with the question as to whether to agree to, demand, request, submit to, negotiate or permit, an indemnification provision (Provision) respecting the counterparty (Counterparty) under…
PayJunction notifies sales agents of breach
PayJunction is notifying sales agents that their names, Social Security numbers, and bank account numbers may have been compromised by unauthorized access to a backup of an internal business system. In a letter sent to those affected, Randy Modos, President of PayJunction, writes that they learned in late September of the July breach. The letter…
Petrochem notifies employees of stolen laptop containing their Social Security numbers
Vallejo-based Petrochem is notifying employees that a laptop with their personal information was stolen from a fellow employee’s car on July 18: On the evening of July 18, 2013, an unknown person broke into the locked car of a Petrochem employee and took a laptop computer, various documents and other items. Stored on the stolen laptop…
HHS's breach reporting: has it lived up to its promises and mandates – Sound off!
I’ve occasionally (*cough*) expressed my frustration with HHS’s breach tool and the fact that breaches do not get added to the tool immediately, their fields are confusing and they don’t provide the narrative from the breached entity that might better describe or explain the breach, and you can’t get the breach reports until HHS has…