In a case that started in 2007 with medical records being burned on a farm, the Detroit Free Press reports: The Michigan Department of Community Health has settled a civil lawsuit against Southfield psychiatrist Dr. Soon Kim and Quality Health Plan Inc. for improperly disposing medical records from Greater Detroit Hospital in Detroit. Under the…
NY: Suit Planned Over Photo of Slain Woman
John Annese of the Staten Island Advance reports: The distraught parents of a strangled West Brighton woman say they’re planning to sue everyone they feel is responsible for a photo of their daughter’s corpse making its way onto the Internet — including the EMT accused of posting the picture on his Facebook.com profile. Martha and…
WA: Privacy fight centers on Social Security number
Leah Beth Ward of the Yakima Herald-Republic reports: With identity theft on the upswing, Aram Langhans thought he was simply being prudent when he asked the Yakima Heart Center to remove his Social Security number from its files. “They had my insurance card and my driver’s license. What else did they need?” said Langhans, a…
UK: Information Commission to probe NHS data security breaches
Richard Staines of Nursing Times reports: A total of 140 security breaches have been reported in the NHS in the first quarter of this year, with tens of thousands of patient records lost, according to the information commissioner. Richard Thomas revealed his concerns in an interview with The Independent, in which he said he has…
UK: Bank worker was arrested for attempted theft
Ecommerce Journal reports that Ansir Khan, an employee of Carter Allen Private Bank, wrote down stolen customer details “in a complex code to avoid detection.” He gave the details to accomplices who then rang up the bank pretending to be the customers, transferring money to their own accounts. A Detective Constable used the Scoutmaster’s A…
Protecting Electronic Data
From a New York Times editorial: In 2005, ChoicePoint, a data broker, gave access to personal information about more than 140,000 people to criminals posing as businesspeople. Since that widely publicized security breach, many states have passed laws protecting consumer information, but Congress still has not come through. Now, the House is considering a bill…