Privacy & Cybersecurity

Back on July 1, we blogged in this space about a very large data breach experienced by health insurer WellPoint. According to WellPoint, over 470,000 individual insurance customers may have been affected by a breach that went unreported for over five months. 

Recently, a news bulletin in Health Data Management  highlighted the point that many security experts are trying to make these days: Encryption is not always a "safe harbor."

It’s a distressingly common scenario. A corporate laptop containing job applicant data, including social security numbers, is stolen from an employee who has taken the laptop off of corporate premises. Access to the social security numbers makes it possible for wrongdoers to engage in identity theft.

On July 13, Mintz Levin will be joined by Sophos, Six Weight Consulting, and MFA Cornerstone Consulting to hold a free compliance workshop focused on both the gaps and overlap of Massachusetts’ data protection regulation 201 CMR 17.oo and the recent updates to federal health and medical data privacy found in the HITECH Act.

At the urging of congressional lawmakers, the Federal Trade Commission has for the fifth time delayed enforcement of the “Red Flags” Rule – this time through December 31, 2010. In the interim, Congress plans to consider legislation that would alter the scope of entities covered under the Rule.

Anthem Blue Cross is notifying approximately 230,000 members and applicants for individual health insurance of a breach involving a web site used by individuals to apply for insurance and track the status of their applications.

It’s been a while since we have visited the Federal Trade Commission’s Red Flags Rule here in this blog. The oft-postponed deadline is now fast approaching on June 1. Except, that is, for lawyers and now, doctors.

Symposium on Privacy and Innovation
Tomorrow, the Commerce Department is hosting a day-long symposium called “A Dialogue on Privacy and Innovation.” It will include several panel discussions to discuss stakeholder views and to facilitate further public discussion on privacy policy in the United States.

A Connecticut woman has filed a charge of discrimination under the Federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act ("GINA"), which prohibits discrimination against employees based upon their status as carriers of genetic information.

Brokerage firm DA Davidson has agreed to pay a fine of $375,000 for failing to protect confidential client data from Latvian hackers who breached the company in 2007 in an online extortion scheme and the three have pleaded guilty in Montana.

Our Friday afternoon feature --
Virginia Adds Medical Information Breach Law - The Commonwealth of Virginia has amended its data breach notification law to include breaches of medical information.

The decision we blogged about in this space last week is creating quite a bit of buzz in both privacy and employment law circles. My employment law colleagues in our New York office have authored an analysis of the decision here: Employment Alert: New Jersey Supreme Court Finds Privacy Rights in Employee E-Mails

As we blogged here last week, we were going to post our Client Alert with further details about the settlement and consent order reached by the restaurant chain Dave & Buster's and the Federal Trade Commission relating to the breach suffered by the chain.

We will post a link to the amended legislation as soon as it is released by the Committee.

In case your data security compliance plan is stuck in neutral, you have questions, or you haven't started yet...there will be a free (!) breakfast hands-on workshop on Thursday in Tewksbury, MA.

Our Friday afternoon feature is back (albeit on Thursday due to schedule tomorrow) – a quick round-up of bits and bytes related to data privacy and security.

That’s how Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz described the identity theft protection offered to consumers by the widely-advertised LifeLock product and the claims made by the company that its service provided comprehensive identity theft protection.

For all of you who have been struggling with data security compliance obligations from various fronts, and trying to handle complex technical issues such as encryption of portable devices and data "at rest" and "in transit" --- here is a very big story regarding plain old everyday mail.

At the beginning of the "countdown" to the March 1st effective date of 201 CMR 17.00, we offered some posts with "misapprehensions" and compliance suggestions.

February and March are just full of significant deadlines for privacy/security reporting and compliance.