Keith Gilligan reports: The investigation continues into how and where a USB key, containing personal health information of thousands of people who had a flu shot in Durham Region, was lost. In the meantime, letters have been sent to every one of the 83,524 people who attended any health department flu vaccination clinics from Oct….
VA, Kaiser Permanente launch e-health records exchange
Lucas Mearian reports: In a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership, health-care network giant Kaiser Permanente and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs today unveiled a pilot program they’ve been using to share patient electronic health records over the past several months. The program connects the VA’s VistA (Veterans Affairs Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) and Kaiser…
World Privacy Forum files comments with Department of Labor regarding genetic regulations
The World Privacy Forum filed comments this week with the Department of Labor requesting that the department expand its protections of how genetic information may be used by health insurance companies or group health plans. The comments were in response to the interim final rules implementing sections 101 through 103 of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination…
NJ: Clifton woman pleads guilty in scam run from Passaic County Jail
John Petrick reports: A Clifton woman pleaded guilty in state court Wednesday to her role in a complex scheme run from the Passaic County Jail that stole the identities of inmates to fraudulently obtain more than $450,000 from American Express and others. Rania Al-Monakel, 34, will have to serve 365 days in the county jail…
OR: Hackers crack security on Eugene school employee info
KVAL reports: Hackers breached the security a computer server containing the names, phone numbers and employee ID numbers of current and former Eugene School District employees, the district said Tuesday. The server in question did not contain other personal information but was attached to servers that contain Social Security numbers and other sensitive data, the…
Heartland breach shows why compliance is not enough
Jaikumar Vijayan reports: […] The [Heartland] intrusion led to the “stark realization that passing a PCI security audit does not make a company secure,” said Avivah Litan, an analyst at research firm Gartner Inc. “This was known well before the breach, but Heartland served as a big pail of ice water thrown on the face…