Personal injury case information found in Atlanta area dumpster
Technorati Tag: Security Breach
Date Reported:
8/15/08
Organization:
Attorney Gary Smith
Contractor/Consultant/Branch:
None
Victims:
Clients
Number Affected:
"thousands of people"
Types of Data:
Names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, medical records, and other personal information
Breach Description:
"ATLANTA (MyFOX Atlanta) – Thousands of documents loaded with social security numbers and other personal information were thrown out Friday, left in dumpsters that anyone could get to."
Reference URL:
Atlanta FOX Channel 5 News
Report Credit:
Chris Shaw, FOX Channel 5 News
Response:
From the online source cited above:
Thousands of documents loaded with social security numbers and other personal information were thrown out Friday, left in dumpsters that anyone could get to.
[Evan] The personal injury lawyer cited in this incident is Gary Smith. Do you suppose Mr. Smith knew the sensitivity of the information he threw in the dumpster? My feeling is that he did. How could you not? Then the question in my mind is why would he make the decision to toss the files in the garbage and increase the risk to his clients? Maybe he thought he wouldn't get caught. Seems lazy and irresponsible.
"I thought, wow, that's a lot of cardboard. And then I said, wait a minute, those look like documents," said George Altman.
Altman works at the Northlake office park where the documents were dumped.
"As you see, this thing is full of things like this, where there's a person's photo on here. You open it up and there's a social security readily available," said Altman.
The documents listed dates of birth, addresses and even medical records in almost every file.
No one was at the law office Friday afternoon where the case files originated.
Late Friday, the personal injury lawyer who represented the clients in the files said the cases were closed so he threw the documents out.
[Evan] Really?! Where is the common sense? This isn't the kind of thought process that I would want from a lawyer representing me.
He later admitted it was a mistake to dump them.
"These are old records, they're 10 years old, but I still live in the same house I had 10 or 15 years ago and my social security number hasn't changed," said Altman.
[Evan] Mr. Altman has some common sense.
The files filled up parts of three dumpsters and the personal information of literally thousands of people were there for anyone to take.
The information belonged to people not just from the Atlanta area, but from everywhere from Lula to Jackson.
"I am completely stunned by this and I can't believe this is still happening in today's age, when we're so aware of identity theft," said Altman.
Commentary:
My thoughts are that Mr. Smith knew the risks involved with dumping sensitive information and just didn't think anyone would notice. Unfortunately, I think that this incident is not uncommon. A bad guy (or gal) doesn't have to be a genius to breach an organization's information security, many times they just need to have more common sense.
It was reported that Mr. Smith hired a guard to watch over the dumpsters until the confidential information could be removed and destroyed securely.
Past Breaches:
Unknown
Date Reported:8/15/08
Organization:
Attorney Gary Smith
Contractor/Consultant/Branch:
None
Victims:
Clients
Number Affected:
"thousands of people"
Types of Data:
Names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, medical records, and other personal information
Breach Description:
"ATLANTA (MyFOX Atlanta) – Thousands of documents loaded with social security numbers and other personal information were thrown out Friday, left in dumpsters that anyone could get to."
Reference URL:
Atlanta FOX Channel 5 News
Report Credit:
Chris Shaw, FOX Channel 5 News
Response:
From the online source cited above:
Thousands of documents loaded with social security numbers and other personal information were thrown out Friday, left in dumpsters that anyone could get to.
[Evan] The personal injury lawyer cited in this incident is Gary Smith. Do you suppose Mr. Smith knew the sensitivity of the information he threw in the dumpster? My feeling is that he did. How could you not? Then the question in my mind is why would he make the decision to toss the files in the garbage and increase the risk to his clients? Maybe he thought he wouldn't get caught. Seems lazy and irresponsible.
"I thought, wow, that's a lot of cardboard. And then I said, wait a minute, those look like documents," said George Altman.
Altman works at the Northlake office park where the documents were dumped.
"As you see, this thing is full of things like this, where there's a person's photo on here. You open it up and there's a social security readily available," said Altman.
The documents listed dates of birth, addresses and even medical records in almost every file.
No one was at the law office Friday afternoon where the case files originated.
Late Friday, the personal injury lawyer who represented the clients in the files said the cases were closed so he threw the documents out.
[Evan] Really?! Where is the common sense? This isn't the kind of thought process that I would want from a lawyer representing me.
He later admitted it was a mistake to dump them.
"These are old records, they're 10 years old, but I still live in the same house I had 10 or 15 years ago and my social security number hasn't changed," said Altman.
[Evan] Mr. Altman has some common sense.
The files filled up parts of three dumpsters and the personal information of literally thousands of people were there for anyone to take.
The information belonged to people not just from the Atlanta area, but from everywhere from Lula to Jackson.
"I am completely stunned by this and I can't believe this is still happening in today's age, when we're so aware of identity theft," said Altman.
Commentary:
My thoughts are that Mr. Smith knew the risks involved with dumping sensitive information and just didn't think anyone would notice. Unfortunately, I think that this incident is not uncommon. A bad guy (or gal) doesn't have to be a genius to breach an organization's information security, many times they just need to have more common sense.
It was reported that Mr. Smith hired a guard to watch over the dumpsters until the confidential information could be removed and destroyed securely.
Past Breaches:
Unknown
Posts Atom 1.0
99% of the lawyers I know, except the big firms that represent Hospitals, just throw their old files out in the garbage. I learned 40 years ago to be careful what you put in your trash, as you have no expectation of privacy in discarded trash, and boy do the narcs have a field day with those garbage bags placed on the curb. Learning from this, I have personally utilized picking up garbage bags from the curb in divorce cases, and you would not believe how many nasty divorces I won that way. Lawyers: Buy a shredder.
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Excellent perspective and sound advice. Lawyers would also be well advised to seek the guidance of trained information security professionals.
Just as I would not attempt to go to court without professional legal guidance, I would not expect a lawyer to secure sensitive information without professional information security guidance.
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