In discussing the recent Ponemon survey, I noted that the respondents did not seem to include anyone whose information was stolen for tax refund fraud – an all-too-prevalent crime in Florida. Here’s another example. Ebony Edwards pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft, to file false claims against the government, and…
UK: Newcastle Citizen’s Advice Bureau data breach concern
BBC reports: An investigation is under way after the Citizen’s Advice Bureau in Newcastle inadvertently released personal information about some of its clients. About 1,300 files containing names, addresses, debt history and criminal records were accidentally made available on the internet. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is looking into the incident and a possible data…
NZ privacy commissioner finds that physician properly mitigated harm following a breach
Case Note 248601 [2013] NZ PrivCmr 4 : Medical practice mitigates future harm after data breach A doctor working in a suburban medical practice had his car broken into and bag stolen. The bag contained a USB stick holding the personal information of a number of patients, including the complainant. The data detailed the complainant’s…
NZ insurance firm settles over privacy breach
Stuff reports: An insurance company has been forced to reach a settlement and change its policies after breaching a man’s privacy by accessing his full medical history without permission. The unidentified man brought a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner after the company he applied to for trauma insurance accessed his full medical…
Swisscom Acknowledges Data Security Breach
Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ was in possession of four data tapes that apparently originated from Swisscom’s data centres, the editorial office has informed the company. The records concerned are apparently backup files from 2008 to 2010 containing internal Swisscom data, including e-mails. It is still not clear to Swisscom whether customer data are also stored…
Pairing patient privacy with health big data analytics
Patrick Ouellette reports: Health privacy and security are often mentioned in tandem, but Deborah Peel, Founder and Chair of Patient Privacy Rights and Adrian Gropper, Chief Technology Officer of Patient Privacy Rights, took a different view in a recent Institute for Health Technology Transformation (iHT2) webcast. The presentation, titled “Competing for Patient Trust and Data…