KATU reports: The reason for why about 30 people had their credit card and debit card numbers stolen in sandy: A computer malware or virus apparently infected a local merchant’s computer, police say. Investigators believe the business is Sandy’s Dairy Queen, but are still looking into other potential compromised businesses, such as the Fred Meyer…
UK: Council’s data blunder branded ‘sloppy’ by FoI expert
Another case where a FOI (freedom of information) response exposed too much: A data blunder which saw the council release sensitive staff information has been branded ‘sloppy and embarrassing’ by the recipient. Roger Gill originally submitted a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to Horsham District Council after receiving no response to a complaint about Acorn…
Indiana: No data breach after stolen laptop traced to Indy home
Stephen Dean reports: State officials said no data was breached after a state worker’s stolen laptop was tracked down to a home on the east side of Indianapolis. A longtime employee with the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) told police her state-issued laptop was stolen from the back seat of her car at a…
NIH in Pact to Protect Privacy of Family, Maintain Research
Ron Winslow reports a settlement in the long-running dispute concerning the use of cancer cells taken from Henrietta Lacks without her consent and then used by researchers for over 60 years: The National Institutes of Health on Wednesday said it reached an unprecedented agreement to protect the privacy of the family of a woman whose…
Auburn University error exposes donor and alumni information on public server
On June 19, Auburn University in Alabama learned that spreadsheets containing donor and alumni information had been accidentally uploaded to a public server. The spreadsheets contained an undisclosed number of donor and alumni’s names, maiden names, postal and email addresses, telephone numbers, and Social Security numbers. The spreadsheets also contained former students’ years of attendance,…
Flaw in E-mailing System Exposes Millions of Mexicans’ E-mails
Bogdan Botezatu reports: A massive numbers of Prodigy subscribers in Mexico have had their email conversations exposed overnight because of a security flaw in the company’s mobile e-mail and web-based mail systems. According to a news report by El Economista, the flaw allowed search engines to simply index private conversations and list them on the…