Blog

  • Mon, 10/02/2017

    Survey Shows Lack of Policies for Confidential Papers

    Weak risk management could be making small businesses vulnerable to data theft according to an independent market reserarch firm.  The company just released its results of its survey finding that 39 percent of American small business owners lack any type of company policy for managing their confidential paper.  In addition, 32 percent of SBOs think that a loss or theft of documentation would not adversely affect their organization, while 31 percent feel that a data...

  • Sat, 09/23/2017

    What are the security implications of improperly disposing confidential data?

    In one word, devastating! Security implications are significant and it’s never been more prevalent than today.  Costing the US over 50 billion dollars annually, identity theft, corporate espionage and dumpster diving have been ever growing concerns. The trash is considered by business espionage professionals as the single most lucrative source of competitive and personal data.  Any establishment that discards private data without destroying it first, exposes itself to many...

  • Tue, 09/19/2017

    Community Mercy Health Partners Privacy Breach Affects 94,000

    Springfield, OH Community Mercy Health Partners Springfield Regional Medical Center has been forced to notify 94,000 patients whose Protected Health Information had been discovered in a public dumpster.  The documents were found in a public dumpster located in Clark County, OH.  Most of the documents were dated from 2005 and 2006 and had come from a since closed facility called Community Hospital in Springfield.  Some of the documentation included...

  • Fri, 09/16/2016

    US Court of Appeals Law Suit Challenging Data Breach Caused by Hackers

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit determined that allegations of damage after a data breach caused by hacking are sufficiently concrete to confer Article III making it more difficult for companies defending data breach suits.

    In a lawsuit against Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., the plaintiffs alleged the invasion of privacy, negligence and bailment, were violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA. The plaintiffs claimed that there is a present and growing...

  • Wed, 04/06/2016

    The number of breaches and their severity is growing rapidly, reported by digital security company Gemalto.  The report, entitled Breach Level Index, says there has been 15 per cent more data breaches in the first half of 2016, compared to the last six months of 2015. 

    A total of 974 data breaches were reported worldwide, compiling 554 million compromised data records, in the first half of 2016.  It is also...

  • Sun, 04/27/2014

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently awarded a $3 million settlement as a result of a lost laptop computer by Florida based health insurer AvMed.  The court allowed several claims, including those pertaining to negligence and breach of contract to remain. 

    The National Association for Information Destruction's CEO said “Over the last 15 years, victims of data breaches occasionally sought financial compensation from the courts under the typical class-action process, up until this Florida ruling, however, every such attempt had been summarily...

  • Thu, 06/06/2013

    Recent studies have shown, that the cost of data breaches to healthcare organizations has risen from $180K to over $2.2M since 2010.  The number of breaches has also been increasing on average by approximately 32% year after year.  This equates to a loss of $6.5 billion per year industry wide.

    Ironically, the majority of these breaches were not caused be sophisticated computer hackers, but rather were a result of employee neglect.  The loss of IT devises and discarding of PHI via unsecure methods were huge contributors.  Poor security measures of both storing and...

  • Fri, 04/26/2013

    Despite the majority of companies experiencing or anticipating significant cost and business disruption due to a client and/or business information data breach, they still struggle to take the proper measures to prevent an incident.

    Studies have shown that a majority of companies have already or are very likely to lose customers and business partners, receive negative publicity and face serious financial consequences due to even a small data breach.  However, despite these consequences, many companies struggle to take the right steps to prevent an incident, clearly showing a...

  • Fri, 04/05/2013

    Identity Theft is the fastest growing white-collar crime in America.  The scary part is that stolen identification is used on average about 30 times before the victim is even aware of it.  That means the thief can be using your information for a year before you even realize it!

    As we have become aware of these frightening facts, we can take measures to protect ourselves from identity thieves lurking about.  To accomplish this, you need to know which types of information is most valuable to the info gathering crooks.

    Here are some forms of information we...

  • Mon, 03/11/2013

    In one word, devastating! Security implications are significant and it’s never been more prevalent than today.  Costing the US over 50 billion dollars annually, identity theft, corporate espionage and dumpster diving have been ever growing concerns. The trash is considered by business espionage professionals as the single most lucrative source of competitive and personal data.  Any establishment that discards private data without destroying it first, exposes itself to many risks.  The only means of minimizing this exposure is by having a controlled program for the...