In November 2009, the Las Vegas Sun revealed that someone at University Medical Center in Las Vegas was leaking patient information to personal injury lawyers and chiropractors. I’ve posted a number of updates to the case, and today’s Las Vegas Review-Journal reports the latest development. Doug McMurdo reports that Richard Charette pleaded guilty to having…
Ankle + Foot Center of Tampa Bay breach affecting 156,000 included Social Security Numbers as well as PHI
Now that I have additional information on a hacking incident involving the protected health information (PHI) of 156,000 patients of the Ankle + Foot Center of Tampa Bay, it is clear that this breach belongs on this site. I had previously noted it on PHIprivacy.net on January 29 after it appeared on HHS’s breach tool. At…
UK: Patients are "misled" over confidentiality of health e-records, say Oxford researchers
Tony Collins reports: Researchers from Oxford University say that patients are not being adequately informed about possible secondary uses of their medical data for research and are “misled about the level of anonymisation of their data and the likelihood of re-identification” The criticism is in a paper, “The limits of anonymisation in NHS data systems” which was published…
NSW officer charged with unauthorised computer access
From AAP: A NSW Police officer has been charged over what police describe as “unauthorised computer access”. The offence allegedly occurred in August last year and involves an officer who was part of the North West Metropolitan Region. The constable has been served with a court attendance notice and is expected to appear at Parramatta…
Ca: Apply the letter of the law to breaches of privacy
The editors of the Regina Leader-Post call for more disclosure and transparency on data breaches: Perhaps it’s going to take a prosecution – and the possibility of a $50,000 fine -for the Saskatchewan government to show it really means business when it comes to protecting personal information in this province. What is clear is that…
NIST formalizes cloud computing definition, issues security and privacy guidance
George V. Hulme writes: Last summer, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra asked the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to help accelerate the federal government’s secure adoption of cloud computing by leading efforts to develop cloud standards and guidelines. And NIST just delivered. The agency published two new draft documents on cloud computing. The first…