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Old Computers = Security Risk

Even if you clean out the hard drives of old computers to ensure sensitive data is no longer accessible, you may not completely get the job done. To a novice user, a computer with no visible folders and files may appear clean, but an experienced programmer or hacker can work diligently to uncover fragments of data, including financial information like bank routing numbers and consumer identification, which can be used to commit theft. Just as nothing truly disappears on the Web thanks to archival sites, there is always the chance something can be unearthed. Forensic computer scientists, for example, employ such tactics to gather evidence when it appears wrongdoers are trying to cover their tracks.

The Solution? Shredding!

How does a business ensure the security of its interests, employees, and clients? Shredding! MicroShred offers hard drive destruction services which take invalid drives and other hardware – and even disks and flash drives – and grind them until they are totally unreadable. Destruction is the best method for protection if you are concerned about sensitive data remaining where it can be found.

To learn more about adding peace of mind to your business, contact MicroShred to inquire about our hard drive shredding services. We offer sound and discreet shredding with a guarantee that your data is destroyed for good.

That’s the message that Susan McAndrew, deputy director for privacy at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, delivered May 11 at the Safeguarding Health Information conference in Washington. OCR sponsored the conference with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Federal enforcement of the security rule transitioned in 2009 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the OCR. The office continues to build expertise on the security rule, but much of the transition work is done, McAndrew says. “Transitions are always longer than you expect.”

To boost enforcement of the security rule, OCR has added investigators in 10 regional offices, McAndrew notes. “We’re hoping that with additional feet on the ground, we’ll be able to do many more security cases as the year moves forward.”

The HITECH Act links privacy and security–and enforcement of both HIPAA rules–enabling regulators to look at these issues from a more holistic viewpoint, McAndrew says. As the electronic world moves into the clinical side, the health care industry increasingly will find that privacy and security issues collide, she contends. “Without a sound security policy, privacy will just be a principle.”

Consequently, 2010 is when the industry will really start to see a realization of HITECH’s privacy and security initiatives enacted in 2009, McAndrew says. “We’re hoping to move security to the forefront and make it a real partner with privacy in our enforcement.”

View original source here

The report found that while company boards are taking risk management seriously, there remains a gap in understanding the relationship between information technology, or IT, and risk management. The report is based on the results from 66 respondents to its survey at the board or senior executive level from Fortune 1000 companies. It builds on CyLab’s first survey, conducted in 2008.

“The survey results indicate that boards and senior executives need to be more actively involved in the governance of the privacy and security of their computer systems and data, but this year’s study shows some important areas of improvement,” said Jody Westby, a distinguished fellow in CMU’s CyLab, and CEO of Global Cyber Risk LLC, in a statement.

The report found that a majority of companies don’t have full-time privacy, security and risk executives responsible for those issues. Respondents indicated that corporate boards reviewing privacy and security issues weren’t focusing on activities that would help protect the organization from high-risk situations, such as reputational or financial losses due to breaches of personal identity information or theft of confidential or proprietary information.

Police determined the files, which contained information including patient names, Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses, had been discarded from University Medical Clinics in the 1800 block of Southeast Port St. Lucie Boulevard, said Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman.

A man identified by Nichols as a high ranking official with the company indicated an employee had thrown the files way.

“A garbage bag full of medical records is not an oversight,” Nichols said.

Dr. Samuel Sadow, CEO of University Medical Clinics, said Wednesday he didn’t think any patient information had been compromised.

“We’re very concerned about it and we’re doing our own internal investigation,” Sadow said.

Nichols said the records were returned to the office.

Nichols said the files initially were found by a woman acting on an anonymous tip that they’d been discarded. That woman then notified police of her discovery.

(Read original article here)

Secure Mobile On-Site / Off-Site Document Shredding Company – Fort Lauderdale, Florida

ABC2 News investigators recently discovered that an M&T Bank branch in Rodgers Forge, Maryland improperly disposed of documents that should have been shredded. These documents included social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank accounts, and other sensitive information that should not have wound up in the dumpster. When contacted by the media M&T stated that the discovery was a clear violation of corporate policy, and pledged to conduct an extensive internal investigation…

Full Story

Unfortunately, because NIST SP 800-88 also contains specifications for paper destruction, which is very small, some HIPAA/HITECH Covered Entities are misinterpreting the HHS Guidance to mandate that destruction specification extends to paper as well. Again, NIST SP 800-88 does not extend to paper media, only to sanitization.

Here is the language as it reads in the Federal Register:

(b) The media on which the PHI is stored or recorded has been destroyed in one of the following ways:
(i) Paper, film, or other hard copy media have been shredded or destroyed such that the PHI cannot be read or otherwise cannot be reconstructed.
(ii) Electronic media have been cleared, purged, or destroyed consistent with NIST Special Publication 800–88, Guidelines for Media Sanitization, such that the PHI cannot be retrieved.

It is important to note that none of this is actually a requirement of HIPAA or HITECH—it is simply advice regarding safe harbors for avoiding possible data breach notification events.

Read the Federal Register Reference

(source:http://naidonline.org/)

Secure Mobile On-Site / Off-Site Document Shredding

SOUTH FLORIDA SHREDDING DIRECTIONS

MicroShred, South Florida, provides both mobile and plant-based destruction of confidential documents. Our mobile shredding units can come to you and shred all sensitive material at your location, under your supervision. Click here to read about our South Florida Shredding Services.

If you are interested in plant-based destruction, you can get directions to Florida’s Document Shredder MicroShred Inc. from the following places :

All directions are from South Florida going to:
MicroShred Inc.
19593 NE 10th Ave.
Miami, FL 33179-3577, US

We also provide Shredding Services to the following areas:

• Atlantis
• Boca Raton
• Boynton Beach
• Briny Breezes
• Broward County
• Cloud Lake
• Deerfield Beach
• Delray Beach
• Fort Lauderdale
• Glen Ridge
• Golf
• Greenacres
• Gulf Stream
• Haverhill
• Highland Beach
• Hypoluxo
• Juno Beach
• Jupiter
• Jupiter Inlet Colony
• Lake Clarke Shores
• Lake Park
• Lake Worth
• Lantana
• Loxahatchee
• Manalapan
• Miami-Dade County
• Miami
• Palm Beach
• Palm Beach Gardens
• Pompano Beach
• West Palm Beach