May | 2011 | AlertBoot Encryption Services

Laptop Encryption Software: Spartanburg Regional Hospital Announces Laptop Theft.

Spartanburg Regional Hospital has begun notifying clients that the theft of a laptop from an employee’s car has triggered a data breach. The laptop was not secured with disk encryption software like AlertBoot. Laptop Encryption not Used? According to a statement by an executive vice-president at the hospital, “On March 29, 2011, we were informed […] read more

Notebook Computer Encryption Software: Exclusive Footwear Laptop Stolen…During Business Hours.

A shoe boutique in the UK has made an appeal to thieves, asking for the return of an aged notebook computer that was used as a customer database. The main concern in this case doesn’t appear to be data security — which could have been easily resolved by the judicious use of laptop encryption software […] read more

Data Encryption: Skype Encryption Cracked? Kinda.

Today I found an entry on slashdot.net with the headline “Chapel Hill Computational Linguists Crack Skype Calls.” An introduction to the story claims that computational linguistics has been “used to crack Skype encryption.” Is this true? Well, your mileage may vary, but after reading all I could about the situation, I’d have to say “yes, […] read more

Drive Encryption Software: Loyola University Medical Center Has Data Breach.

Loyola University Medical Center has begun notifying patients about the theft of a flashdrive from an employee’s car. The USB device did not make use of drive encryption, potentially exposing protected health information. Car Break-In The USB flashdrive was stolen from an employee’s car, along with a number of other items. The incident sounds like […] read more

Data Encryption Software: Nevada Non-Profits Not Required To Comply With NRS 603A? Of Course They Are Required To!.

I heard a very disturbing assertion yesterday. Apparently, some time ago, an offer was made by yours truly’s company, AlertBoot: a non-profit in Nevada was presented with free deployment of our disk encryption program. The offer was turned down, and we were told that they didn’t need it because non-profits don’t need to comply with […] read more

K-12 Data Encryption: Student Records Need To Be Better Protected.

Student information needs to be better protected, be it via data encryption software or something else. It just doesn’t make sense to keep things the way they are. It just doesn’t. Criminals are Targeting Student Information I came across another ID theft ring story where student info was exclusively used for committing fraud, and, to […] read more

Email Address: Is It Personally Identifiable Information (PII)? Maybe In Alberta, Canada.

Personally identifiable information, otherwise known as PII, otherwise known as sensitive info. We know that these must be protected in this day and age, and that data encryption like AlertBoot is one of the better ways to do so. But what is PII? Are email addresses PII? In Canada, it looks like it could be, […] read more

Portable Hard Drive Encryption: Protecting Medical Data On External Drives.

Bad news coming from our friends in Canada: according to edmontonjournal.com, a portable hard drive was stolen from Dr. R. Burnham and Associates Medical Clinic, triggering a breach of 1,000 patients. The external hard disk drive was “protected” with password-protection but not with full disk encryption like AlertBoot. Alberta Health Services’ Central Alberta Pain and […] read more

Update On "Delta Dental Notifies Clients Of Breach".

I had commented on the “Delta Dental – The Smile Center” breach story yesterday (the one where a disk with personal data was not protected with data encryption like AlertBoot) that it was hard to tell who the party responsible for the lost data happens to be. The party responsible as the data owner, that […] read more

Full Disk Encryption Software: Delta Dental Notifies Clients Of Breach, Laptop Stolen.

Delta Dental, The Smile Center, and an expert witness are at the center of one of the most convoluted medical data breach stories that I’ve read in a while. The article at myfoxtwincities.com leaves me with more questions than answers. One thing that’s not a point of contention: data encryption software was not used to […] read more