I’ve been doing a lot of work with data retention and disposal policies and procedures lately, remembering the silly things I have read about with regard to organizations getting rid of their computers, such as selling their computers on eBay when they no longer need them…without removing the information! This is certainly not a phenomenon that is confined to the U.S.
Lo and behold, another situation has happened where an organization sold their old computer on eBay…for a bargain at £77 ($141), and it contained a a huge amount of personally identifiable information (PII), including credit card applications, on what is reported to be as many as over 1 million customers. Here are a few excerpts from the report in Forbes…
Archive for August, 2008
Laptop Containing PII of 1 Million+ People Sold On eBay for $141
Saturday, August 30th, 2008More Data Retention Tips And Considerations
Thursday, August 28th, 2008Here are some more data retention tips and considerations as a follow-up to my Tuesday blog post…
Do You Know Your Data Retention Requirements?
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008There have been several interesting news reports recently about data retention proposals, plans, practices and laws in the U.K.
Currently there are proposals to require emails to be retained for a full year, but critics contend that sloppy data retention practices will result in actual retention periods much longer, if the emails even ever get deleted.
This is an important point; when it comes to data retention, the requirements are rarely, if ever, followed by some organizations…
Insider Threat Examples & 7th HIPAA Criminal Conviction
Monday, August 25th, 2008Yesterday I read about the 7th criminal conviction and sentencing that has been given under HIPAA, “Woman gets 14 months in ID theft case.”
A Privacy Song About…Überveillance!
Sunday, August 24th, 2008I was delighted to get a message this morning from my friends down-under, Dr. M. G. Michael and Dr. Katina Michael from the University of Wollongong.
If you’ll recall, a few months ago I made a couple of blog postings about überveillance here and here.
Iowa’s Fields of Digital Dreams
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008TV Anchor Confesses To Snooping His Co-Anchor’s 3 Email Accounts For 2 Years!
Friday, August 22nd, 2008A few months ago I blogged about a co-anchor at a television station who was accused of getting into his co-anchor’s email and passing information from the messages along to news outlets.
I was interested to see a CNN report today, “Fired anchor pleads guilty to e-mail snooping” that followed up on this story. Larry Mendte reportedly admitted to accessing Alycia Lane’s emails, in her 3 home and work accounts, over 500 times over a 2-year period!
Okay, why was he able to so easily get into her email accounts…3 OF THEM!…over a period of 2 years?! Wasn’t there any security applied to these email systems?
Some possibilities…
Company Uses Negotiated Checks For Packing Material!
Thursday, August 21st, 2008Not much surprises me any more with regard to some of the silly things that organizations do with printed PII that put the involved individuals at risk.
However, I was surprised when I watched an ABC News report this morning…
Many, Many Methods Of Cyberattacks
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008Yesterday CNN ran an interesting story, “U.S. at risk of cyberattacks, experts say.”
For those of you in the information security biz this is not new news, I know. We’ve known and discussed the massive and insidious types of damage that could be done through cyber attacks for several years. However, there is still not enough being done.
