A reader kindly alerted me to the fact that Columbia University sent out breach notices last week. The letter, dated April 21, informed recipients that 3,000 current and former employees, as well as 500 sole proprietors had their names, addresses, Social Security numbers and bank account numbers exposed on the Internet. The names of…
AU: OAIC updates data breach guidelines
Hamish Barwick reports: The Office of the Australian Information Commission (OAIC) has updated its voluntary data breach guidelines as a means of encouraging organisations to notify the public in the advent of a data breach. The new guidelines, entitled Data breach notification, update the August 2008 Guide to handling personal information security breaches. Information Commissioner, John McMillian,…
CA: Tossed tax files found
Beatriz E. Valenzuela reports that a bag of discarded tax files was found behind a Hesperia business. Thankfully, it was found by someone in law enforcement: “It was a black canvas bag full of payroll files,” Hill said, with personal information such as Social Security numbers. “There were 12 to 14 bundles of files and…
UK: ICO issues first penalty to the NHS following serious data breach
From the Information Commissioner’s Office: A Welsh health board has become the first NHS organisation to be served a monetary penalty following a serious breach of the Data Protection Act, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said today. The Aneurin Bevan Health Board (ABHB) has been issued with a penalty of £70,000 after a sensitive report…
Theft of personal documents in Fort Worth led to two-year crime spree
Dave Lieber reports that a nurse’s aide who was a convicted ID thief stole another nurse’s aide’s identification card and then used her identity in ” one of the biggest identity theft capers in Tarrant County, one that targeted more than half a dozen area nursing homes and home healthcare businesses and at least a dozen…
UK: Axway provides statistics on complaints to the ICO
Axway issued a press release with some interesting statistics on complaints made to the Information Commissioner Office (ICO). They obtained the data under Freedom of Information requests. Here are some of the statistics they compiled: Since April 2010, 35% of complaints to the ICO involved disclosure of personal data and security breaches. This year alone, the…