David Lazarus writes: West Hills resident Victoria Afonina works as a computer programmer for a major supermarket chain, so she knows probably better than most people how vulnerable her personal information is once it gets out into the open. She routinely tells banks and other financial-service providers that they can’t share her information with other…
Ie: Data tape with bill details lost
A data tape containing information from 12,799 electricity bills has been lost. Old billing information, names and addresses are included on the record of payment demands produced on August 10 last year, NIE Energy said. It did not contain any banking details but the electricity company has written to customers. The latest loss follows a…
Patient Data Safety Rules Widely Disregarded, Unenforced
Joe Eaton reports: As the federal government prepares to spend up to $27 billion in stimulus funds to promote electronic medical records, a health technology industry survey suggests that a number of hospitals, health clinics, and insurance firms are violating federal security rules on patient data and putting sensitive health information at risk. The November…
‘Loose Lips’ Can Get HIPAA Covered Entities in Trouble, Now That Verbal Gaffes Must be Reported to HHS
Reprinted from REPORT ON PATIENT PRIVACY, the industry’s most practical source of news on HIPAA patient privacy provisions. The caseworker probably thought she was doing the right thing by sharing with the patient’s daughter that the woman had become increasingly paranoid. But when the daughter confronted the mother with knowledge of her decline, the mother…
UK: Social work records found in second-hand filing cabinet
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found Lancashire County Council in breach of the Data Protection Act after social work records containing sensitive personal data relating to several individuals were found in a filing cabinet purchased second-hand by a member of the public. The records were duplicates of documents held in the council’s offices and…
(Follow-up) Beach nurse gets 2 years for identity theft from patients
Tim McGlone reports: Calling the crime “very disturbing,” a federal judge sentenced a nurse to two years in prison after she admitted stealing the identities of several patients, some suffering from dementia, and then going on a $14,000 shopping spree. Erica S. Fowler, 27, of Virginia Beach, said nothing before U.S. District Judge Robert G….