A research letter in JAMA is getting some attention in the news: New research has raised alarm about threats to privacy posed by patients searching for health-related information on the internet. Marco Huesch, a researcher at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, searched for “depression,” “herpes” and “cancer” on various health-related websites and observed…
California Dept. of Consumer Affairs has a breach, but doesn’t notify those affected for 6 months?
Ouch. The California Department of Consumer Affairs – Bureau of Automotive Repair (“BAR”) learned that a service provider had a network intrusion breach that gave someone access to bank account numbers and bank routing numbers belonging to the Smog Check stations licensed by the BAR. The breach reportedly occurred between May 2012 and March 2013,…
Former Iberdrola employee charged in April breach
So it looks like the Iberdrola breach, reported in April, was a disgruntled employee situation after all. Steve Orr reports: In mid-April, an RG&E corporate parent announced that a computer intruder had compromised the privacy of job applicants’ personal data. Coming a year after another computer-privacy foul up involving Rochester Gas and Electric Corp., the…
Texas amends the effects of its data breach law on out-of-state residents
Joseph J. Lazzarotti of Jackson Lewis LLP writes: On June 14, 2013, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed S.B. 1610 amending Texas’ data breach notification law to remove language limiting the application of the data breach notification requirement to Texas residents and residents of states that do not require notification, permit, for residents of states other than Texas that require notification of a breach, notice to be…
NC: Page High School employee mistakenly releases 456 students’ information to a parent
Meanwhile, in North Carolina: Personal information, such as grades, phone numbers and home addresses, was mistakenly released for about 456 rising Page High seniors. On Tuesday, a school employee authorized to access the information accidentally released it to a student’s guardian, according to a news release from Guilford County Schools. The employee was answering an…
UK: The cancer diagnosis letter found in a car park, voicemails to the wrong person and a gate-crashed consultation: Hospital data breaches up 20% in a year
Madlen Davies reports: Hospitals have seen the number of confidentiality breaches and losses of patient data rise by a fifth over the past year, with thousands of such incidents reported, a Pulse investigation reveals. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from 55 hospital trusts who were able to provide comparable year-on-year statistics show…