Patients HIV Information Leaked!

It seems like the HMRC data loss was not enough to make the authorities feel more responsible since they work with very important residents' information. Today, CBC News reports that an official in Newfoundland and Labrador could allow unauthorized people to access HIV and hepatitis details stored on a desktop computer. According to the same source, the employee disconnected the computer and took it at home although the system was obviously intended to work purposes. The consultant was hired at the Provincial Public Health Laboratory, CBC News added.

It seems like all the details were accessible through the web because the employee connected the computer to the Internet but didn't think that the data could be accessed by any unauthorized person. Although nobody noticed a potential security breach, "someone claiming to be a computer security specialist from somewhere outside the province called the consultant and said they were able to access the data," the source mentioned above stated.

Now, there are two possibilities. Number 1 - the information was accessed by lots of Internet users, some of them copying it on their personal computers (this would mean the details might be used in the future by any other user) and number 2 - the data was accessed only by the security expert who reported the breach so the information could be in safe hands.

"That was an inappropriate use. Obviously individual computers that are available for work are there for the workplace only," Health Minister Ross Wiseman told CBC News.

Just like in the HMRC case, nobody knows for sure what happened with the information so the users were again put at risk by the negligent officials. This time, I'm not sure a security technology could protect the details, since the employee took his workstation at home and made the entire amount of details available on the web.