Brian Krebs writes: Web site domain registrar and hosting provider Network Solutions acknowledged Tuesday that hackers had broken into its servers and defaced hundreds of customer Web sites. The hackers appear to have replaced each site’s home page with anti-Israeli sentiments and pictures of masked militants and armed with rocket launchers and rifles, along with…
UK: Computer virus shuts down Exeter University system (updated)
From ThisisExeter: The entire computer network at Exeter University had to be closed down after a it was hit by a virus attack. Hundreds of computers were taken off-line and lecturers were forced to give up their hi-tech teaching and return to using chalk and blackboards. It meant that there was no access to email,…
UK: Patient notes sent to wrong address
A farmer was left “horrified” when personal and intimate details of a potentially fatal pregnancy complication for another woman were dropped through her letterbox. Kay Ashton, 54, said she was “completely bewildered” as to how confidential patient notes from Derriford Hospital’s accident and emergency department, which were meant for a doctor, were sent to her…
Security researcher IDs China link in Google hack
Robert McMillan reports: The malicious software used to steal information from companies such as Google contains code that links it to China, a security researcher said Tuesday After examining the back-door Hydraq Trojan used in the hack, SecureWorks researcher Joe Stewart found that it used an unusual algorithm to check for data corruption when it…
German DPA Fines Drugstore Chain €137,500 for Illegal Collection of Health Data
On January 11, 2010, the data protection authority of the German federal state of Baden-Wurtemberg issued a press release stating that it had fined the Müller Group €137,500 for illegal retention of health-related data and failure to appoint a Data Protection Officer. In April 2009, the German press reported that the Müller Group, a drugstore…
UK: Large databases can never be secure
Henry Porter writes: The decision by Scotland’s Crown Office not to prosecute Dr Andrew Jamieson for accessing the emergency care summary (ECS) records of well-known people is interesting. Despite the absence of a conviction, the case involving footballers, politicans and BBC journalists is significant because it shows that big centralised databases are the enemy of…