Marshall Allen reports that the UMC breach reported previously may have gone on for as long as three months: For more than three months someone at University Medical Center illegally leaked the personal information of traffic accident victims — a breach of social security numbers, birth dates and more that only stopped when the Las…
New Data Breach Report: Malicious Attacks Doubled in 2009
Linda McGlasson writes about Ponemon’s new report: … The number of malicious or criminal attack-related breaches was 24 percent — double the 12 percent of the 2009 study. “They are the most costly, and the types of attacks we found included botnet attacks and data-stealing malware,” Ponemon says. “There is more to worry about because…
Data breach costs top $200 per customer record
Ellen Messmer reports: The cost of a data breach increased last year to $204 per compromised customer record, according to the Ponemon Institute’s annual study. The average total cost of a data breach rose from $6.65 million in 2008 to $6.75 million in 2009. Ponemon Institute based its estimates on data from 45 companies that…
Informing victims of identity theft (Resource)
M. E. Kabay reviews a resource previously mentioned on this site: Until recently, information assurance (IA) personnel and attorneys specializing in this area of the law have had to search for the appropriate governing laws for each jurisdiction. In this column, I review a valuable resource for locating the laws that apply to disclosure of…
Blundering past HIPAA
Cory Franklin, a physician, has a commentary on HIPAA in the Chicago Tribune that begins this way: Recently, at my local Starbucks I asked the barista behind the counter about a medical problem she had that will require surgery. Her answer left me astonished, “Management said I can’t talk about my health — it’s a…
For sale: Personal details of millions of Ladbrokes gamblers
Jason Lewis and Sandra White report: The confidential records of millions of British gamblers who bet with top bookmaker Ladbrokes have been offered for sale to The Mail on Sunday. The huge data theft is now at the centre of a criminal investigation after this newspaper was given the personal information of 10,000 Ladbrokes customers…