The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has served the Bank of Scotland with a monetary penalty of £75,000 after customers’ account details were repeatedly faxed to the wrong recipients. The information included payslips, bank statements, account details and mortgage applications, along with customers’ names, addresses and contact details. The documents were faxed over a three year period, with the…
UK: Workers’ personal information found in cabinet sold at auction
Here we go again: personal information left in filing cabinets that are surplussed or auctioned off. The personal details of dozens of employees from a council-owned waste company have been found in a filing cabinet bought at auction. The misplacing of the documents from Premier Waste Management was last night described as “diabolical” by a…
UK: Landlord's shock as mental health records are found in attic
Concerns over patient confidentiality have been raised by a Hakin landlord who found stacks of medical records stashed away in his attic. Peter Eaton said he was shocked to find five bin bags-full of mental health records hidden between the joists and under the fibreglass of his attic when he was renovating his property in…
OK: Juvenile records found unsecured in old courthouse
Salesha Wilken reports: Juvenile court records, which by law are not open to the public, were found Wednesday strewn about the old Rogers County Courthouse, left unsecured and available to anyone who happened on them. The criminal index cards — including information about arrests, victims and “deprived” juvenile cases — were discovered by District Court…
Privacy breach prompts retraction of three papers from the trauma literature
A group of international psychology researchers is retracting three papers in the wake of revelations that they failed to adequately safeguard the identities of the patients who participated in the studies. So far, only one article has been formally retracted. That article, “Combining biofeedback and Narrative Exposure Therapy for persistent pain and PTSD in refugees:…
Plaintiff in LinkedIn lawsuit says harm is irrelevant and the issue is deception
MainJustice has an update to the LinkedIn lawsuit concerning their massive hack last year. As expected, LinkedIn moved to dismiss on the grounds that the plaintiff hasn’t suffered any harm and hasn’t proved they used outdated security, but the plaintiff responds that harm is irrelevant – she wouldn’t have purchased a premium account if it…