From the press release: The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) remains highly concerned that data breaches involving people’s personal information are continuing to occur in NHS organisations. Today NHS Stoke-on-Trent and Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust are the latest NHS bodies found to have breached the Data Protection Act (DPA). Both NHS organisations’ chief…
SSA teleworkers may be putting personal data at risk, IG says
# Alice Lipowicz reports: While teleworking is improving morale at the Social Security Administration, it also may be exposing individuals’ personal information to unauthorized disclosure via employees’ computers, according to a new report from the SSA Office of Inspector General. […] “We [have] determined [that] Office of Disability Adjudication and Review practices may have exposed claimant data…
NJ: Documents Containing Personal Info from City Hall Found in Public Dumpster
Phaedra Laird reports: Authorities in Middle Township are investigating how documents from Municipal Hall containing personal information like social security numbers, landed in a public dumpster. The information, which was handed over to officials, could’ve easily landed in the wrong hands. “Oh, I got some more social security numbers.” When Carla Carpenter came to the…
UK: GPs agree to waive privacy of mentally ill gun owners
Vikram Dodd reports: Doctors have agreed to breach their duty of medical confidentiality to patients who own guns if they fear they have become so seriously mentally ill they may use their weapons on themselves or the public, the Guardian has learned. GPs say they will tell the police if a gun owner’s deteriorating health…
AT&T Explains iPad Security Breach
Nick Bilton recaps the breach and posts the e-mail sent by AT&T to customers about the breach: On Sunday evening, AT&T sent an e-mail message to owners of the Apple 3G iPad notifying them of a security breach that was publicized early last week. The message, sent by Dorothy Attwood, a senior vice president and…
OH: Disclosure law doesn’t cover misplaced documents
Josh Sweigart reports: If a government misplaces a pile of documents containing confidential information in a Dumpster, they don’t have to tell anyone. If they lose a password protected laptop computer, state law requires public disclosure within 45 days. That is why Butler County wasn’t required to tell the 10,600 people potentially affected by a…