Patient records held to ransom!

Data thieves are threatening to release millions of patient records held by a U.S. prescription drug management company unless the company pays up. The continuing investigation, backed by an offer of a $1 million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the crooks, stems from an event made public in November. Express Scripts, a large company that manages prescription-drug benefits, reported that both it and its clients had received letters threatening to reveal customer information–including Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and prescription information–if certain extortion demands were not met….

These high profile events are triggering drives to improve privacy legislation in the U.S., this includes hi-tech companies such as Symantec and Microsoft and Google that have joined groups such as the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) that have sounded alarms on several privacy-related issues before the U.S. Congress and federal agencies.

Santa arrested!

Can you believe it that in 2008 Father Christmas was arrested and arraigned on a contravention of the UK Data Protection Act, reports The Spoof. Investigators discovered a list of the world’s children categorised by who is “naughty” and who is “nice.” It appears the list was compiled without the consent of the children. “This is a clear breach of the 1988 Data Protection Act,” said Detective Inspector Phil Inne. The list is described as a “gold mine” of consumer information, including the addresses and wishes of children worldwide. Computerised records are new for Santa, who used to hold his records of naughty and nice children on reindeer hide written in elf blood. However, with the burgeoning of the world’s population of under tens, coupled with the decline in childhood mortality rates, this had become impracticable, forcing Santa into computerising his records 😉

Ireland gets tough with spammers

Tough new Irish laws will see businesses face fines of up to €250,000 if they are found guilty of sending unsolicited email. Under the new regulations, unsolicited mail for direct marketing purposes will be an indictable offence. The new regulations are known as ‘European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Data Protection and Privacy)(Amendment) Regulations’. Read more…

Walking on water

Today was quite fantastic. We walked to the little lake on the island only 10 minutes away and spent a couple of hours ice-skating. I have never seen such beautiful ice; opaque black yet so clear like a mirror. It was an amazing sight and a heavenly sensation when skating, the ice couldn’t have been more perfect. The temperature has now dropped to -8 degrees centigrade this evening. During the day it was -6, quite perfect as long as you wrap up warm.

What a beautiful start to 2009!