An Albuquerque food pantry is warning its clients that tens of thousands of them are at risk for identity theft after a laptop computer containing their personal information was stolen last week. The Rio Grande Food Project says the computer contained sensitive personal data — including addresses, birth dates and Social Security numbers — of…
NY: Detailed medical records turn up online
Cathleen F. Crowley reports: Alice Fisk searched Google hoping to find condolence messages written on memorial sites for her daughter, who died in September from complications of diabetes. Instead of condolences, Fisk found a medical report about her daughter’s visit to a bone doctor. […] Records of more than 1,000 patient visits to Northeast Orthopaedics,…
CO: City worker accused of stealing fellow employees’ identities
A Denver city worker will be formally charged this week with 18 counts of identity theft and nine counts of criminal impersonation. Ray Taylor, 36, is also facing one count of theft. The Denver District Attorney’s office says Taylor used the names, birth dates and other personal information of others, including current and former Denver…
Alberta to share medical information with foreign governments (commentary)
A concerned reader from Canada sent me this commentary with permission to post it: Alberta¹’s legislature has introduced amendments to the Public Health Act that allow the province’s Chief Medical Officer to release personal medical information to the government of a foreign country or an agency of any of those governments for a range of…
Valley National Bank replaces cards after Heartland
When payment processor Heartland Payment Systems announced it had been breached on January 20, management at Valley National Bank in New Jersey went into action. By January 26, they had notified the New York State Attorney General’s Office that they were replacing 20,013 cards as a result of the breach and had kicked into high…
CVS Settles with FTC on privacy charges; CVS Pharmacy pays $2.5 million to settle HIPAA allegations
CVS Caremark has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it failed to take reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect the sensitive financial and medical information of its customers and employees, in violation of federal law. In a separate but related agreement, the company’s pharmacy chain also has agreed to pay $2.25 million…