There was no press release issued, but the Information Commissioner’s Office site notes: An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Luton Borough Council. This follows a self reported breach concerning a flaw in the encryption function of a number of Council issue memory sticks. The flaw could allow memory…
UK: Children’s case files found in second-hand furniture shop
From the ICO: The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) breached the Data Protection Act by failing to keep sensitive information about the welfare of young people secure in two separate incidents, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said today. The first incident happened in September last year when nine case files were mistakenly left in a…
Texas Police Chief Association suffers data breach, with sensitive documents and emails published
Dan Raywood reports: The Texas Police Chief Association was hacked last night with classified information leaked along with private emails from police. While the website is currently down, with only a message displayed that reads ‘our site is currently offline for maintenance and updates, please check back tomorrow’, Anonymous has claimed responsibility for the attack but a statement did…
WA: Medical clerk who stole patient IDs gets 5 years
Carol M. Ostrom reports: A medical-office billing clerk who stole patient information and prescription pads to get thousands of dollars’ worth of narcotic prescription drugs to sell was sentenced to five years in prison by a federal court judge Thursday. For the scam, Alyce Burrell, 28, of Seattle, often brought along her two children when…
School records lost by Canada Post; identity theft feared
It’s not just U.S. school districts that have been suffering breaches. Here’s one from Canada that was reported last week by Luisa D’Amato: Canada Post has lost two rolls of microfilm containing the personal information of more than 2,200 Waterloo Region residents who left or graduated from high school six years ago. The microfilms were being…
California Strengthens its Data Breach Notification Law
Joseph Lazzarotti writes: As we suspected, California’s current governor, Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown, Jr. (D), signed into law S.B. 24, which adds some additional protections to the state’s current data breach notification requirements. The champion of this law and its recent enhancements, State Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), has finally succeeded after a number of prior attempts to pass this measure…