Gillian Shaw reports: The Royal Bank says it has fixed a computer security glitch that allowed some of its West Coast Visa customers to view transactions made by other cardholders. Vancouver’s Mike Jagger was checking his RBC Visa statement online when he found himself staring at someone else’s transactions — about $20,000 worth of charges….
Computer crime case dropped
Here’s a case where it sounds like sloppy security may have led to unwarranted criminal charges. Annmarie Timmins reports: The authorities have dropped their theft and computer crime case against a former Local Government Center employee because the center’s “careless” and “sloppy” security practices would undermine any charges, according to letters obtained from the Merrimack…
Arlington trash bin yields sensitive documents
Jim Douglas reports: A startling discovery in a trash bin has residents in one Arlington neighborhood angry. They want to know who tossed out dozens of sensitive, personal files linked to their homebuilder. [….] They appeared to be sales documents from K. Hovnanian Homes, a major builder. “I grabbed one of the folders and seen…
Blue Cross physicians warned of data breach
Kay Lazar reports: The largest health insurer in Massachusetts is warning roughly 39,000 physicians and other health care providers in the state that personal information, including Social Security numbers, may have been compromised after a laptop containing the data was stolen in August from an employee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association’s national…
Lawmakers: lower bar for health IT data breach notification
Roy Mark reports: Two key chairmen of U.S. House committees Oct. 1 urged HHS (Health and Human Services) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to revise or appeal the agency’s controversial “harm standard” that would trigger a personal health record data breach notification. Under the current rules, companies that secure health information using encryption or destruction, no breach…
Civil rights office unveils genetic privacy proposals
Joseph Conn reports: Two notices of proposed rulemaking and a proposed interim final rule, all interpreting the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, or GINA, have been issued by various federal departments and agencies, HHS’ Civil Rights Office announced. The civil rights office has issued its notice of proposed rulemaking to address privacy issues regarding…