Posts Tagged ‘ Identity Theft Resource Center ’

Year of the breach: 2011 in review

Several high profile events throughout the year have kept the spotlight on the issue of data exposures, especially those where millions of consumers information was obtained by malicious hackers. Although the information involved, emails and passwords, does not rise to the level of a “personal identifying information” (PII) breach, it is definitely troubling that such a large number of consumers may become targets of phishing and related attacks, which do attempt to get consumers PII.[ READ MORE ]

What consumers should know about data breach notification

It can be unnerving to be told that your information has been compromised in a data breach. The uncertainty of not knowing all the details and the anxiety over what information has been exposed is deeply troubling to many consumers. A breach notice makes us aware of a new risk to our lives that we can’t measure easily.[ READ MORE ]

Ensuring the security of personal identifiable information

Everywhere you turn these days there’s word of a new data breach. In the course of our lifetime, our “personal identifying information (PII)” is shared with hundreds of companies, governmental agencies, educational facilities, businesses and health care providers. What can a consumer do to protect their sensitive personal information?[ READ MORE ]

Child identity theft: A new frontier for fraudsters

A recent Federal Trade Commission discussion, "Stolen Futures: A Forum on Child Identity Theft,” presented a valuable opportunity to galvanize industry experts and public leaders around this increasing privacy threat.[ READ MORE ]

10 ways that breaches burn business

Don’t let your bottom line go up in flames: understand how security breaches impact your business and take aggressive action to avert disaster.[ READ MORE ]

Ensuring compliance with new healthcare legislation

Legislation has been introduced in Congress to crack down on Medicare and Medicaid fraud. This legislation comes at a time when incidents of medical fraud are on the rise and the Obama Administration is poised to role out sweeping healthcare reform.  Medical fraud is estimated to cost the U.S. health care system $100 billion a [...][ READ MORE ]

Child ID theft has serious business implications

Identity thieves are becoming more skilled as they focus on stealing dormant social security numbers that belong to children. Experts point out that frequently the parents and children are not aware of the fraud and potential financial damage until the minor applies for his or her first job or student loan.[ READ MORE ]

Do your business associates know how they will be affected by HITECH?

Just as the healthcare industry came up to speed on the regulations defined in The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health ("HITECH") Act, additional modifications are being proposed. These proposed rules focus on expanding obligations and penalties for covered entities (CEs) to now include business associates (BAs). So why is this significant? [ READ MORE ]

Warning: Medical data breaches are on the rise

According to a recent study by the Identity Theft Resource Center, data breaches in the healthcare sector are occurring at a higher rate than in other industries. The study found that of the 385 data breaches that occurred in the U.S. in the first half of 2010, 30% of those affected were healthcare providers. In comparison, data breaches reported in banking and other financial institutions for the same time period totaled 10%. What is the cause of this large discrepancy between industries?[ READ MORE ]