This is another one of those posts that I have filed under the category of ‘Really?!’
I posted two weeks ago about national data privacy day, and managing you information is YOUR responsibility:
http://lrs.ms/InfoProtect
While the EU and many other parts of the world are increasing penalties for breaching the loss of personal information; the French DPA levied a fine against Google for €150,000 for a simple neglect to notify a change in their privacy policy.
Anthem, the second largest insurance provider in the US suffers one of the most egregious data breaches in history with the loss of over 80 million customer/client records including those of the CEO. Now this little extravaganza is getting parlayed in to a congressional hearing.
Yes, Anthem was imediatley forthcoming of the breach, and it was found by their own internal audit procedures, kudos for them; don’t we wish Target and Home Depot were as equally transparent.
Boards and shareholders (myself included) are growing increasingly impatient with the cavalier way our personal information is thrown around.
All that said, there is little help on the horizon for netizens in the US, and managing the location and use of your personal information is still your responsibility.
For example, of the 10 most significant personal data privacy and protection issues from the last year, 9 of them involved the EU and Russia. Only one, the amendment to the Safe Harbor policies, and that involves the data for citizens of the EU.
I’m about to send out my forth information security tip; and folks I know the first three seems MIND NUMBINGLY simple (change your passwords, use complexity, etc.), but I will tell you, how few people actually follow those basic practices, and in reality cause 80% of the loss of data. The suggestions aren’t sexy, but they are VERY real.
http://lrs.ms/AnthemCSuite
http://lrs.ms/2014PrivacyDev