Katie Moore of WWLTV reports that although FEMA learned on December 19 that personal information of nearly 17,000 evacuees — including “names, Social Security numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and other disaster information” — was published without authorization on scribd.com and esnips.com, many of those affected are just now finding out about it. The…
Shaik's 'privacy violated'
Johannesburg – The Health Professions Council of South Africa expressed alarm on Wednesday at the media’s “violation” of patient confidentiality. “We have noted, with horror and dismay, media articles indicating that the press are in possession of confidential medical reports violating patient confidentiality,” HPCSA registrar Boyce Mkhize said in a statement. This was not only…
Bits ‘n Pieces
In the justice system: Thomas Alan Thompson, a preacher at Calvary Baptist Church, was arrested and charged with identity theft after allegedly praying preying upon his congregation. More. Janice Washington, a Registry of Motor Vehicles employee working at the Braintree branch was arrested on March 19 on federal identity theft charges for selling genuine birth…
Ohio personnel files found in auctioned file cabinets
The Associated Press reports that someone who purchased file cabinets at a state surplus auction discovered that Ohio personnel files containing Social Security numbers, medical histories, and salaries of five former state employees were still in the cabinet. According to man, when he contacted the Ohio Department of Administrative Services about the situation, first they…
Three processors breached, all claim to have been compliant (update 1)
Jaikumar Vijayan of Computerworld reports that merchants using Heartland Payment Systems and RBS WorldPay do not need to worry about fines or their own liability if they continue to use the payment processors. An analysis by Avivah Litan of Gartner, Inc. that is based on a statement by Visa provides additional clarification. For its part,…
FL: Personal information papers found in dumpster
Suncoast News reports that “reams” of personal information, including employment applications, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license numbers, have been found carelessly dumped in a Sarasota dumpster by someone from Westaff Employment, a company that appears to be closed. I expect we will see even more of such reports as small businesses (or large ones) go…