Posts Tagged ‘privacy breach’

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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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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Michigan Inacts New Identity Theft and Breach Notice Law

Thursday, January 4th, 2007

Yesterday (January 3) Michigan’s governor, Jennifer M. Granholm, signed a new identity theft and breach notification law, SB 309.

“Today’s technology has taken commerce and communication to new heights, but it also puts citizens at additional risk of identity theft as ever-increasing amounts of personal information are stored and transmitted electronically,” Granholm said. “While I am pleased to sign legislation that provides critical information to consumers, we must do more to provide our citizens with the tools they need to truly protect themselves.”

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Insider Threat Example: Medco Employee Indicted for Planting Computer Logic Bomb

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

On December 19, 2006, a computer systems administrator, Andy Lin, for Medco Health Solutions, Inc. was indicted by a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey for attempting to disable his employer’s corporate computer servers through the use of a concealed malicious software program.
Today (January 3) Lin is being arraigned. If convicted, he could get 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000; $250,000 for each of the two charges.

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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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Stolen Laptop: Laptop and Printouts with PII about 600 Students in Colorado

Sunday, December 17th, 2006

The Longmont, CO Daily Times reported December 14 that a nurse’s laptop was stolen from her car whle she was parked at a restaurant, along with paper records containing personally identifiable information (PII): “students‚Äô names and dates of birth; the names of their schools and what grade they are in; the students‚Äô Medicaid numbers; and their parents‚Äô names.”

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Stolen Laptop: Laptop and Printouts with PII about 600 Students in Colorado

Sunday, December 17th, 2006

The Longmont, CO Daily Times reported December 14 that a nurse’s laptop was stolen from her car whle she was parked at a restaurant, along with paper records containing personally identifiable information (PII): “students‚Äô names and dates of birth; the names of their schools and what grade they are in; the students‚Äô Medicaid numbers; and their parents‚Äô names.”

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Stolen Laptop: Cleartext Medical PII on 25,000 in Pennsylvania

Sunday, December 17th, 2006

On December 14 WCPO TV 9 News reported:

“A break-in in Springdale, Ohio is affecting thousands of people in Pennsylvania. The office of Electronic Registry Systems on Northland Boulevard was broken into Thanksgiving weekend and a computer was stolen. That computer had medical records on it for some 25,000 participants in a Pennsylvania health plan. Police don’t suspect I.D. theft. They say, in other recent cases, the thieves wiped the computer’s hard drive clean and then tried to re-sell it.”

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Stolen Laptop: 3rd Theft from Boeing Since November 2005; Clear Text PII of 382,000 On the Latest

Sunday, December 17th, 2006

It was reported December 15 that Boeing had the 3rd laptop stolen in just a little over a year.
The laptop was stolen from an employee’s car. PII included “names, home addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers and dates of birth for current and former Boeing employees.”

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