Sounds like a small number in every state could be impacted.

NC DHHS contractor’s missing drive held over 50,000 medical providers’ names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers

Yesterday, the North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) disclosed that a flash drive with information on over 50,000 medical providers who are excluded from participating in federal healthcare programs had been misplaced or lost by its contractor, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). The provider information included names, addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. A report today in News & Observer incorrectly describes the data has having been encrypted.

CSC spokesperon Michelle Sicola Herd provided DataBreaches.net with the following statement:

CSC, a contractor for the state of North Carolina, discovered a loss of data involving medical provider information. The data loss involved approximately 50,405 medical providers throughout the country, including approximately 1,182 in North Carolina. The only providers involved are those prohibited by the federal government from participating in the Medicare, Medicaid and all other federal healthcare programs.

Following a CSC-couriered interoffice delivery between CSC facilities in North Carolina, a USB thumb drive of medical provider information is unaccounted for. The provider data included provider names, social security numbers, addresses and date of birth and was stored unencrypted on the thumb drive. The data does not include any patient-related information.

We have informed the North Carolina State Department of Health & Human Services of this loss of data and are working with the department on a full investigation, at the department’s request. Affected providers will be notified next week by CSC. In the meantime, providers who believe their information may have been compromised should monitor their credit and seek a free fraud alert for 90 days [Why only 90 days? Bob] using a Federal Trade Commission website (http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0275-place-fraud-alert). A 1-800 number has been set up to field additional questions (1-800-957-7154).

At the department’s request, CSC will work with an independent third-party to assess security and compliance related to this incident. CSC is also reviewing thoroughly our privacy and security policies and procedures.

We sincerely regret the inconvenience and concern this loss of data causes the state’s Department of Health & Human Service and the affected providers. CSC understands the serious nature of this issue and we remain committed to responsible stewardship of data for which we are responsible.

Periodic updates will be shared as more details are known.

“Any Dean dumb enough to put it in writing does not deserve to be a Harvard Dean!”

Harvard University administrators secretly searched deans’ email accounts, hunting for media leak

Harvard University central administrators secretly searched the email accounts of 16 resident deans last fall, looking for a leak to the media about the school’s sprawling cheating case, according to several Harvard officials interviewed by the Globe.

The resident deans sit on Harvard’s Administrative Board, the committee charged with handling the cheating case. They were not warned that administrators planned to access their accounts, and only one was told of the search shortly afterward.

Read more on the Boston Globe.

In this case, Harvard has policies about searching email, but it’s not crystal clear *which* policy applied to the resident deans’ email accounts. It’s a good opportunity for Harvard to review its policies and clarify them. [“We have a policy against clearly written policies.” Bob]

Perhaps wacky weed does rot your brain...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57573430-71/in-half-baked-phone-theft-thief-slips-posts-pot-shot-of-self-on-victims-facebook-page/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title

In half-baked phone theft, thief slips, posts pot shot of self on victim's Facebook page

Police say a Bronx man stole a woman's cell phone then inadvertently posted to her Facebook page a picture of himself smoking pot. She had set her phone to automatically post all photos to the social network.

Very slick, but far from comprehensive. Should be fun to watch!

http://www.edutecher.net/links.php?id=1553

Small Demons

Small Demons is an amazing tool that lets users enter the name of a book and the site pulls out any references to people, things, places, media, etc. that are mentioned in the book. If a book mentions a song, the song is available for the user to sample, along with the text that the reference was in. It is really a great way to explore and enjoy the world of the written world beyond the page.

Would this be useful in our classrooms?

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/03/screenhero-makes-almost-any-application.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29#.UTx2Mzfmyf8

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Screenhero Makes Almost Any Application Collaborative

Screenhero is a new screen sharing service that offers something that I don't recall seeing in any of the other screen sharing services I've tried over the years. Screenhero offers the option for both parties (the sharer and the sharee) to use their mice to control an application. For example, I can share my screen with you and allow you to move things on my screen. Likewise, I can move things around on your screen. By sharing our screens through Screenhero any desktop application becomes a collaborative application. Watch the one minute video below to see how Screenhero works.

For my amusement...

Hack Education Weekly News

… Google released an update to its Google Course Builder (MOOC) platform. The big change: you can now work on your course in the browser.

… Skype announced at SXSWedu that it was making Group Video Calling available to teachers free of charge. (This feature is otherwise only available as a premium add-on to Skype’s VOIP service).