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Posts Tagged ‘Desktop computer’

Data breach at Kansas Department on Aging

January 21st, 2012

Laptop stolen from vehicle belonging to the Kansas Dept. of Aging

Stealing valuables, especially laptops and pen-drives, are in vogue. Thieves have gotten very smart and have realized the value of laptops and mobile devices. It is very difficult to track such thefts and data thieves are getting away easily.

The above will be more clear after reading the following news story.

A laptop computer, flash drive and paper files were stolen from a locked vehicle that belonged to an employee of the Dept.on Aging, Wichita. The Kansas Department on Aging is informing clients tabout this information breach.

The theft took place on Jan. 12 at the Best Western Airport Inn, 6815 W. Kellogg. The suspects broke a rear window on a state-owned car that contained the laptop and paper files. Apparently the employee had covered the items with a blanket before getting into the hotel for safety sake.

Emerging details

The laptop contained data about department clients in Sedgwick, Harvey and Butler counties. So far the police have not been able to recover any of the items. At the same time there is no proof that the stolen information has been misused.

According to the Department on Aging no banking or driver’s license information was involved. But there is a possibility that the stolen information could have full names, addresses, Social Security and Medicaid information and other personal or protected health information. The stolen data also contained social security numbers of 100 people that were a part of the Senior Care Act program. The Department of Aging is trying to reach these people over phone to inform about the theft.

Comments by Secretary Shawn Sullivan of the Department on Aging: ”To date, the laptop, the flash drive, and the paper files that were stolen, has not been recovered. There’s also no evidence to date that shows the information has been accessed or been misused,”. ”Our staff immediately began notifying and calling the families and the customers that was affected with those 100 files. For the most part, they’ve all been very understanding, very appreciative that we notified them immediately,”

The affected parties have been requested to check all bills and check on credit reports.

“You want to know what’s on your credit report. You want to see and recognize any changes or things that you don’t understand. You can see what changes are happening in your credit report and make sure they’re all accurate and up-to-date,” said Clifton O’Neal, communications director for TransUnion.

Data security with Alertsec

Alertsec is here to take care of our security issues especially for anyone working with PCs. Alertsec Xpress is the service that automatically protects ALL information you store on your PC. The fact that we now buy more laptops than desktops shows that the information we all store is increasingly more vulnerable to be exposed. It is a much higher risk to lose a laptop than a desktop computer.

Encryption is the only secure method for complete protection of data stored on your hard disk. Today laptops are overtaking desktop PCs as the major source of computing and media storage, laptops frequently store an organization’s most valuable information. Thus laptop encryption is becoming more and more important.

Alertsec Xpress offers full disk encryption and is therefore superior to other encryption methods when comparing security, performance, robustness and ease-of-use for both administrators and users.

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Posted in Computer security, computer security software, data breach, data encryption, laptop theft

Tags: AlertSec Xpress data breach data security Desktop computer Kansas laptop Medicaid Mobile device Personal computer Social Security Social Security number Theft TransUnion

Fairview Health Services in trouble for lost laptop

September 28th, 2011

Laptop theft causes huge data loss for Fairview and North Memorial

Travelers complained about camera thefts 10 years ago; that was replaced by camcorder thefts 5 years ago. And now it is the laptops that go missing ! A good laptop is worth a lot of money. It is a lucrative stealing business, if you think about it.

The latest laptop incident

The theft took place on July 25 in the parking lot of a Minneapolis restaurant. The laptop belonged to an employee of Accretive Health, a firm that does work for Fairview and North Memorial hospitals.

The laptop contained sensitive data such as names, addresses and social security numbers belonging to 14,000 patients of Fairview Health Services and 2,800 patients of North Memorial Medical Center.

Fairview officials had a strict policy of laptop encryption but in this case, it was not followed or somehow missed the eye. ”The assumption was that the information was safe,” said Lois Dahl, Fairview’s information privacy director.

Other similar incidents

This is the second data theft in the Twin Cities this year in which medical data has been compromised exposing personal data of thousands of patients.

According to Harley Geiger, a lawyer for Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C. ”Events like these weaken public faith in care providers’ ability to keep digital health information confidential”. “It’s hard to argue that the issue is taken seriously enough when they keep losing unencrypted mobile devices containing the intimate medical details of thousands of people.”

What are Fairview and North Memorial doing about it?

Both the healthcare providers are sending letters informing all the affected patients about the data loss and offering free services to protect them against identity theft.

Dr. Mark Werner, one of the senior physician leaders at Fairview, said ”Obviously, we take this event seriously,” . “It’s deeply regrettable.”

Why was Accretive Health hired in the first place?

Accretive Health was hired to analyze and maintain a database of patients who may need extra care coordination. That means combing through data on thousands of patients.

Controversy about sharing patient data

Jeff Neuberger, the chief executive officer of Mid Dakota Clinic in Fargo, said he absolutely could not think of allowing an outside agency to access patient data. ”Someone might need to be fired for this one,” was what he said.

Alertsec equips firms with encryption software

Alertsec is here to take care of our security issues especially for anyone working with PCs. Alertsec Xpress is the service that automatically protects ALL information you store on your PC. The fact that we now buy more laptops than desktops shows that the information we all store is increasingly more vulnerable to be exposed. It is a much higher risk to lose a laptop than a desktop computer.

Encryption is the only secure method for complete protection of data stored on your hard disk. Today laptops are overtaking desktop PCs as the major source of computing and media storage, laptops frequently store an organization’s most valuable information. Thus, laptop encryption is becoming more and more important.

Alertsec Xpress offers full disk encryption and is therefore superior to other encryption methods when comparing security, performance, robustness and ease-of-use for both administrators and users.

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Posted in Computer security, Data Protection, Identity and Information loss, identity theft, laptop encryption, laptop theft

Tags: Accretive Health Desktop computer Enter your zip code here Fairview Health Services laptop Minneapolis Minneapolis – Saint Paul North Memorial Medical Center Patient Personal computer security Theft Twin Cities

Data of one out of every three people in the state of MA has been compromised in the past 20 months

September 25th, 2011

State of Massachusetts has seen the maximum number of data breaches in the past twenty months. Personal information of about two million Massachusetts residents i.e. one in every three people who are residents of Massachusetts, has been breached through electronic data breaches.

According to the 2007 state laws all companies doing business in Massachusetts must inform consumers and state regulators about security breaches that might result in identity theft. The list includes leaks of individual names along with sensitive data like Social Security numbers, bank account, credit card and debit card numbers. The law came into being in 2007 as a result of a 45 million hack of credit card numbers from Framingham-based retailer TJX Cos.

Martha Coakley, Attorney General, said that nearly 1,200 data breaches have been reported. Quarter of these were the result of intentional hacking.

The largest breach in the time period was the hacking of information of about 800,000 people that was lost by a vendor hired to destroy it. In addition, information on 210,000 residents entrusted to a state agency was put at risk.

These data breaches contained information from names and addresses to medical histories.

What MA residents had to say?

Daniel Paul, a courier, gets the jitters when he thinks about it. He made online purchases with his credit card but started getting charged for things he didn’t buy: his credit card had been hacked. It was a nightmare to get things back on track.

Here is what he had to say ”Just going through getting everything changed back, changed over, getting charges off your account, your credit– it was awful,” said Paul. ”I hope I never have to go through it again.”

Mike Paquette, Chief Strategy Officer for Corero Network Security in Hudson, MA said ”In today’s internet world there are so many opportunities where information can be disclosed, as an individual, unfortunately there is very little that you can do,”said.

Consumers do have the option of suing, but it really doesn’t get them anywhere as it is very difficult to prove data theft.

Consumers must carefully keep a track of their online transactions. It is always advisable to deal with well-known companies and do your homework about the company’s info.

Data security with Alertsec

Alertsec is here to take care of our security issues especially for anyone working with PCs. Alertsec Xpress is the service that automatically protects ALL information you store on your PC. The fact that we now buy more laptops than desktops shows that the information we all store is increasingly more vulnerable to be exposed. It is a much higher risk to lose a laptop than a desktop computer.

Encryption is the only secure method for complete protection of data stored on your hard disk. Today laptops are overtaking desktop PCs as the major source of computing and media storage, laptops frequently store an organization’s most valuable information. Thus laptop encryption is becoming more and more important.

Alertsec Xpress offers full disk encryption and is therefore superior to other encryption methods when comparing security, performance, robustness and ease-of-use for both administrators and users.

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Posted in Data Protection, Encryption, Uncategorized, computer security software, data breach, data encryption

Tags: Attorney general Computer security data breach Desktop computer Enter your zip code here identity theft iTunes Martha Coakley Massachusetts Massachusetts Attorney General Personal computer Personally identifiable information security Social Security number United States

Increasing Laptop thefts, a major cause of worry

August 31st, 2010

Laptop thefts have been increasing this year, both on-campus & off-campus, according to a report from Information Technology.

The convenience and portability offered by laptops over desktop computers have made them popular among the masses and the thieves. “A laptop takes six seconds to grab,” said Harvard Townsend, chief information security officer. “Desktop machines are growing less common, Townsend said, and thieves realize this. Everyone should invest in a locking security cable,” he said. “Even at home, leave it kind of secured with that cable; it will eliminate opportunistic theft.”

A locking security cable locks the laptop with a heavy, immovable object, thus making it difficult for a thief to walk away with it. “The locks are available at any electronics retailer, including the K-State Student Union Computer Store. Laptops, whether they are in a room in a residence hall, apartment or house, are the easiest items to steal and have high value,” he said.

He also advised to record identification information about the laptop such as the serial number, hardware specifications, make and model and MAC (Media Access Control) address. The MAC address is an identification code, specific to every computer, both Mac and PC that can help the police track down a possible stolen device.

He also advises to back up data frequently so that incase of the theft, at least the invaluable data is not lost. A more secure way of protecting data is hard disk encryption.

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