Archive for the ‘Privacy Incidents’ Category

Routine Personal Information Posting in the U.S. State Government Agencies

Monday, January 29th, 2007

NBC news ran a story about how many state government agencies post sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) on their websites. In this case an Ohio county court “routinely posted traffic tickets and other public records on its Web site.”

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Laptop Theft Incident: Laptop Security Leads To Catching Drug Dealers

Friday, January 26th, 2007

Some interesting news from right here in my back yard this week…
The Des Moines Register reported that a laptop was stolen along with other items stolen during a home burglery. The computer had a location-monitoring type of anti-theft package installed.

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Laptop Theft Incident: Laptop Security Leads To Catching Drug Dealers

Friday, January 26th, 2007

Some interesting news from right here in my back yard this week…
The Des Moines Register reported that a laptop was stolen along with other items stolen during a home burglery. The computer had a location-monitoring type of anti-theft package installed.

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Privacy Incident: Ohio Board of Nursing Exposes Personal Information of 3,031 Individuals

Thursday, January 25th, 2007

The Columbus Dispatch reported today, “OHIO BOARD OF NURSING Error puts nurses‚Äô personal data online.”
Reportedly over the past two months the “names and Social Security numbers of 3,031 newly licensed nurses were posted online twice.”

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Court Ruling: ISPs in New Jersey Must Keep Personal Information Private

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007

An article from yesterday caught my eye, “Court finds NJ users can expect privacy from Internet providers
A few excerpts:

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Laptop Incident: N.C. Dept of Revenue Laptop Theft Puts 30,000 Residents At Risk

Saturday, January 13th, 2007

Today the North Carolina Charlotte Observer reported a laptop was stolen from the car of an N.C. Department of Revenue employee in December.
They mailed letters to all 30,000 individuals this week. According to the report this is the first time notifications have been made within N.C. since they put their privacy breach notification law for government agencies into effect during the fall of 2006.

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UNI Computers Compromised: Is There a “Typical” Breach?

Friday, January 5th, 2007

Today I read a story appearing in the Des Moines Register, “Computer breach at UNI exposes some personal data” about a breach that occurred at one my alma maters, the University of Northern Iowa.
It bothered me the non-chalant way in which a computer breach was described as being “a pretty typical breach” by the Assoc. VP for Information Technology.
It makes it sound as though such breaches are to be expected. If appropriate safeguards are in place, though, these types of breaches should not occur.

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Potential Personal Data Breach of 5.38 Million Individuals at Nissan in Japan

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

I ran across an interesting news report,”Nissan data leak puts 5 million at risk
I was surprised I did not see this report on any of U.S. news sites. The report is very vague. It just indicates a “leak” occurred between May 2003 and February 2004. A small excerpt:

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Psychotherapy Notes Fiasco and HIPAA: Bad Legislation, Bad Enforcement, or Bad Covered Entity?

Thursday, December 28th, 2006

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an interesting story today, “Spread of records stirs fears of privacy erosion.”
Basically this describes the trials and tribulations of a woman was denied disability benefits from her insurer following a car accident because of notes made by her psychologist. Reportedly the psychologist notes were intermingled with her general medical records.

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Data Ransom Story: Crooks Targeting Small Businesses and Individuals

Tuesday, December 19th, 2006

Yesterday USA Today ran a report, “Cybercrooks hold PC data captive.”
This is nothing new, I blogged about this type of ransom scheme earlier this year. The crooks are getting more creative.

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