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this getting monontious .. ipOOPS! Health records on tapes sold at public auction]
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2006 18:25:30 -0500
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: OOPS! Health records on tapes sold at public auction Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2006 15:03:51 -0800 From: Ari Ollikainen <Ari () OLTECO com> To: dave () farber net Health records sold at public auction B.C. government tapes contain information on conditions such as HIV status, mental illness Jonathan Fowlie Vancouver Sun http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=512bec85-3609-4610-83da-8c6e2885e6f6&k=28942 Saturday, March 04, 2006 CREDIT: Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun Labour Minister Mike de Jong has ordered an investigation into the sale of these computer tapes containing private health information. The provincial government has auctioned off computer tapes containing thousands of highly sensitive records, including information about people's medical conditions, their social insurance numbers and their dates of birth. Sold for $300 along with various other pieces of equipment, the 41 high-capacity data tapes were auctioned in mid-2005 at a site in Surrey that routinely sells government surplus items to the public. Included among the files were records showing certain people's medical status -- including whether they have a mental illness, HIV or a substance-abuse problem -- details of applications for social assistance, and whether or not people are fit to work. "This should never happen," Mary Carlson, director of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of B.C., said Friday in an interview. "There are dignity issues involved in a lot of these disclosures," she said, pointing to things such as HIV status and a need to apply for social assistance. In an interview Friday afternoon, Labour Minister Mike de Jong, whose ministry oversees the auction process, said he has ordered an immediate investigation to determine how the breach took place. "It is completely unacceptable for information like this to be unsecured in the way this clearly is," he said. "People deserve to know [this] type of information . . . is secure and kept private," he added, offering an apology. "I can think of no excuse for information of this sort finding its way into the public domain." In addition to the records containing social insurance numbers and medical conditions, there were also hundreds of what appeared to be caseworker entries divulging extremely intimate details of people's lives. One of those entries details a letter from a woman whose daughter was sexually abused, which provides the woman's name. "Re: her daughter . . . sexually abused by a tenant living in the basement of her house," said the entry, which was logged in 1996. "No mental handicap . . . RCMP involved." Because of the sensitive nature of the information, The Vancouver Sun will not publish any details that would directly identify any of the people involved. Another entry, which included the person's name and phone number, contained the following. "Wants to recover back pay from MSS because she did not know she had to have a Dr.'s note . . . was beaten by her boyfriend . . . wanting for money from WCB but in the meantime wants to pay her bills." Among the other files there was also a document containing more than 65,000 names along with corresponding social insurance numbers, birthdays and what appeared to be amounts paid to each person for social support and shelter. The files on the tapes appear to have been created between 1995 and 2001 and appear to have come from the Ministry of Human Resources and the Ministry of Social Services. The person who bought the reusable tapes says he intended to sell them as blanks for a profit, and only recently discovered they were filled with information. He gave the tapes to The Vancouver Sun out of concern that other information might not be properly destroyed, and did so on the condition of anonymity. On Friday, De Jong could not say exactly what happened, but said there are standards in place and that he wants to find out immediately what went wrong. "I want ministry officials to work closely with the privacy commissioner to do what can be done now to retrieve and secure the information and also to begin an exhaustive examination of how this happened," he said. "There are a strict set of guidelines that are in place governing the storage of information and also governing the disposal of assets." A technology product specialist with Grand and Toy Technology said Friday most private industry will not sell backup tapes or any other removable media, but rather will go to great lengths to ensure the data completely disappears. "Depending on what the organization requires, we can have the tapes crushed, or we can have them crushed and burned," said Brent Wilson. "It's a certified process." Carlson also said the government had sold sensitive information to the public once before, but that the details of that case had not been made public. She added that she is "disappointed" to hear it has happened again. "There is a positive duty in law both for government agencies and private sector entities," she said. "It requires them to pay attention to secure disposal of information. You can't just sell things. You can't throw things in the garbage or in dumpsters. You have to take steps to make sure that information is scrubbed off." jfowlie () png canwest com -- - - - Paranoia is just knowing all the facts -- Willam S Burroughs, Jr. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- this getting monontious .. ipOOPS! Health records on tapes sold at public auction] Dave Farber (Mar 05)