Sofia Santana reports: They say they provided Social Security numbers, copies of utility bills, pay stubs and credit card information to a group called Keep the Faith Ministries. Low-income parents who claim they were swindled by the group, which promised to subsidized their child care expenses, now worry they and their children also may be…
States unable to protect citizens’ personal, health data from cyberthieves
Byron Acohido writes: This should come as no surprise. State government agencies aren’t devoting nearly enough resources to protect citizens’ sensitive data from hackers and data thieves. Some 49 out of 50 states report that a lack of budget is crippling efforts to manage cybersecurity effectively. One state chose not to participate. That’s the upshot…
ICO issues a terse statement about ACS:Law
The following press release was issued today by the Information Commissioner’s Office: 29 September 2010 ACS:Law – Data breach A spokesperson for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said: “The ICO takes all breaches of the Data Protection Act very seriously. Any organisation processing personal data must ensure that it is kept safe and secure. This…
Alabama regulator probing release of Morgan Keegan client data
Roy L. Williams reports: Alabama Securities Commission chief Joe Borg said he will release the findings of an internal investigation into how someone in his office mistakenly gave a Birmingham trial lawyer a computer disk containing confidential information on 18,500 clients of Morgan Keegan & Co. […] Borg’s office mistakenly sent Campbell a disk that…
University of Florida notifies former students of privacy breach (update)
From the UF web site: University of Florida officials have notified 239 former students that their names, addresses and Social Security numbers were part of a web-accessible archive of computer science class information created in 2003 by a faculty member. Discovered last month, the website was removed immediately from the server, which is housed in…
ICO confirms imminent data breach fines
Dan Worth reports: The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has confirmed that it is in the process of imposing fines against organisations that have breached the Data Protection Act. Deputy information commissioner David Smith told V3.co.uk at an Internet Society event in London that the regulator hopes that the fines will make a significant statement about…