Laptop lost by Navy Hospital bore patient info

A laptop computer containing personal information on 38,000 Pensacola Naval Hospital patients is missing, and hospital officials are warning affected patients to monitor their financial records for signs of identity theft.

The laptop, which disappeared sometime after Aug. 18, contained a database with the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of every patient who used the hospital's pharmacy in the last year, hospital officials reported.

The laptop did not contain patient medical records. But it contained disability ratings and spouse information for some patients.

Navy Capt. Maryalice Morro, the hospital commander, said there is no evidence the data has fallen into malicious hands. The computer had a broken screen and may have been disposed of, she said.

Still, officials are advising patients to monitor their bank accounts and credit card statements for suspicious activity, which may indicate their identity was stolen.

"While there is no evidence to suggest personal data has been compromised, it is the Department of the Navy's policy to apprise individuals whose personally identifiable information may be at risk," Morro said. "We regret any inconvenience or undue concern this may cause. We take this potential data compromise very seriously."

Rod Duren, Naval Hospital spokesman, said the hospital started sending notification letters Wednesday to all of the patients who have been affected. The letters, which will be mailed out over several days, contain information on how patients can protect themselves against identity theft.

Retired Navy Capt. Morris Hayes said he and his wife use the hospital pharmacy frequently. As of Thursday, they hadn't yet received notification of the possible data loss.

But he wasn't too worried about the information on the laptop being used by identity thieves.

"They obviously are a danger. You read about it every day," he said. But he added: "I'll tell you the truth, I'm not very much concerned. Nowadays, they want your Social Security number so many places, and it's on your ID card."

He said he'd never had a fraudulent charge to his credit card or had anyone illegally access his bank account.

"Either I'm pretty lucky, or it doesn't happen with the frequency that some people would lead you to believe," he said.

No tweeting at U.S. Open? 'We'll see,' says Roddick

Andy Roddick will have to keep his tweets to himself Monday. (AP)

Tennis star Andy Roddick took to his Twitter account late Friday to challenge new rules for this year's U.S. Open that would forbid players and their entourages from using Twitter during the tournament.

"i think its lame the US Open is trying to regulate our tweeting," Roddick said on the popular microblogging site. "i understand the on-court issue but not sure they can tell us if we cant do it on our own time.... we'll see."

The Associated Press reported Friday that players will be greeted Monday when the tournament starts with signs about the new rules: "Important. Player Notice. Twitter Warning."

The sport is nervous tweets could provide inside information that could violate anti-corruption rules.

Roddick isn't so sure.

"i definitely respect the rule about inside info and on court, but u would seriously have to be a moron to send 'inside info' through a tweet," he tweeted late Friday. "not very subtle/smart ..... come on."

The notices come after a summer where Roddick and other marquee U.S. tennis stars have built big followings on Twitter.

Serena Williams, the reigning Twitter tennis queen, has nearly 1,000,000 followers and Roddick has more than 100,000 of his own.

Williams and Roddick have been known to entertain the Twitter community by playfully bantering back and forth.

Just Friday, Williams tweeted that she outperformed Roddick while throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium, something Roddick had done the night before.

"This prove not only have I crushed @andyroddick in tennis, but now at baseball!! What's next Andy?? Football?? I got u there too!! Lol," Williams tweeted.

Roddick responded: "happy to play any sport anywhere/anytime. u threw it further? so over the catchers head? distance first pitching. congrats!"

Even while big business and news organizations practically stumble over themselves to build buzz on Twitter, engage users and farm the network for information, the world of sports largely has been afraid of what Twitter could mean for athletes.

Earlier this year, Milwaukee Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva was chastised by his coach for tweeting during halftime.

Maybe a little mid-match trash talk or supportive feedback from followers wouldn't be such a bad thing for the sport.

Don't you think tennis has an opportunity here to spice up the game with a little on-court tweeting?

Is the Recession Finally Starting to Turn Around?

Companies starting to rehire laid-off workers

There are a lot of different factors that could be signs of the recession easing up. Though in some sectors we’re still seeing evidence that the recession continues to get worse, a few rays of hope are starting to shine through.
CNN Money reports that companies are starting to recall previously laid off workers, giving them back their old jobs. This is a good sign that economic conditions are improving. Paired with the stable unemployment rate, I’d say there’s definitely potential for some prosperous days ahead.

Other economic indicators

JP Morgan Chase has lost a lot of money in its credit card division, and this company sees that as a sign that the recession is not getting any better, especially because it is continuing to lose money. However, I think it’s a sign that people are getting smarter about credit and discovering alternatives like installment loans instead of using their credit cards like there’s no tomorrow.
I think the fact that people are using credit cards less even though there are strong indicators that economic conditions are improving is another piece of evidence to support the idea that people are simply changing the way they spend money and use credit. Here are some statistics from CNN Money that show we’re headed for better economic times:

• About 38% of employers have indicated they anticipate some type of recall of cut workers, according to a recent report from the Labor Department.
• General Motors, Ford Motor, Dell, AK Steel and truck maker Oshkosh, have already reached out to previously laid-off employees to meet rising demand.
• In a survey, 18% of laid-off workers who landed new positions were rehired by the employer that let them go, up from 13% in 2005, according to Right Management’s outplacement services, a division of Manpower.

Not out of the woods yet

Though some companies are able and willing to rehire their laid-off workers now, the economy is still pretty unstable, and we will definitely still see more layoffs before the recession ends. But it’s important to remember that laid-off workers really can and do get hired back by their former employers.

Getting laid off is tough. It makes people scared, depressed and usually very angry. However, remember that if you get laid off, the way you handle it could come back to haunt you later. It’s easy to have fantasies about telling off your employer and saying all of those horrible things you’ve imagined saying to your coworkers, but finding a job is not easy, and if you have the chance to get your old job back while you’re still looking for another, wouldn’t you want to take it. So always leave companies on a good note. Don’t count on being rehired, but make sure you consider the possibility that it could happen and behave accordingly.

More from CNN Money:

There are many upsides to rehiring former employees, according to management professor Peter Cappelli of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. The positives include savings on recruiting and training costs, maintaining associations between customers and employees, and the fact that the rehired employee doesn’t need an introduction to his or her colleagues.
But redundant firing and hiring can also be costly for the company, particularly in the form of severance payments, and can even be disruptive to workforce performance.

Advertising And User-Targeting Network Lookery Heads To The Deadpool

Lookery, a startup that focuses on collecting demographic data about users and sites around the web and then selling this information to ad networks to target users, is heading to the deadpool. In a blog post, Lookery’s CEO Scott Rafer confirmed that the startup will be shutting its doors after launching in 2007.

Lookery initially started as an ad network for social applications on Facebook, and quickly encountered the troubles of making money off ads on social networks. Lookery ran a promotion for advertisers, offering a guarantee of 12.5 cents per thousand ad impressions (CPMs) in January of 2008. Lookery also made a bold play for ads on traffic from European markets, guaranteeing 25 cents per thousand impressions per advert from European traffic. But things clearly weren’t working out — by July, Lookery was downgrading its guarantee offering 7.5 cents per ad impression, cutting its rates nearly in half.

Although the network served around three billion ad impressions per month, Lookery sold its ad serving business to online advertising network Adknowledge in November of 2008. By that time, Lookery had already branched out into collecting anonymous demographic data from websites and providing this info to advertisers, social networks, dating sites, ISPs, and e-commerce sites.

Lookery raised $3.15 million in angel funding over the past two years, from notable investors and VCs including Charles River Ventures and former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt. And the startup managed to raise a round of funding last September, during tough economic conditions. But in his blog post, Rafer wrote that one of the startup’s downfalls was its original dependence on the Facebook platform. Rafer also mentioned that Facebook’s Summer 2008 redesign had a negative effect on the ad network going on to say that in retrospect, he should have sold the ad network much earlier than November.

Lookery has been added to the deadpool.

get widgetminimize

CrunchBase Information

Lookery

Website:	lookery.com
Location:	San Francisco, California, United States
Founded:	August 1, 2007
Acquired:	November 6, 2008 by Adknowledge

Lookery provides demographic marketing services in and around social networks, trying to solve the basic economic problem that social networks face: great user profiling but unpredictable ad inventory. The service makes it safe for social networks to… Learn More

Sellafield Plans $2.5 Billion Treatment Plant, an Industrial Info News Alert

GALWAY, IRELAND, Aug 21, 2009 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- Sellafield Limited (Cumbria, England) has announced a contract tender worth a potential GBP 1.5 billion ($2.5 billion) to build a plant to handle onsite radioactive effluent. Figures regarding the value of the contract range from GBP 250 million ($413 million) to GBP 1.5 billion for what the tender calls the Highly Active Liquid Effluent Facility. The project is one of the largest planned for the Sellafield site, which just this week received its first consignment of spent nuclear fuel from the Sizewell A nuclear power plant in Suffolk, England, which closed in 2006.

For details, view the entire article by subscribing to Industrial Info's Premium Industry News at http://www.industrialinfo.co.uk/showNews.jsp?newsitemID=149470, or browse other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.co.uk.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy related markets. For more than 26 years, Industrial Info has provided plant and project opportunity databases, market forecasts, high resolution maps, and daily industry news. For more information send inquiries to europe@industrialinfo.co.uk or visit us online at Industrial Info Europe (http://www.industrialinfo.co.uk).

SF Parents Upset Students' Info Shared

A group of Sioux Falls parents is unhappy with a school district policy that allows the district to hand out student information for a cost to outside organizations.

The school district's policy allows outside groups to receive students' names, addresses, telephone numbers, age and pictures among other things. Some parents say the district has no right to give out the information, but the district says a federal law allows them to do so.

Under the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act, school districts can decide what student information is appropriate to give out and not just to the public. The district uses it in many ways, like class listings to hand out to parents, honor rolls published in the newspaper and the school directory. Outside organizations can request the information and pay $100 for every two grade levels.

"We've never gone out and and actively solicited,” Bill Smith with the Sioux Falls School District said. “The groups that have come to us and asked are youth-serving agencies; over half are senior class pictures or caterers for senior parties, that kind of thing."

Smith says the cost isn't for the information itself, but covers the time and resources it takes to create those lists. But parents say it amounts to selling their student's information.

"It's a violation of rights and it's also an overstepping of their duties. Their duty is limited to educating my child," Kevin Kunkel, a parent with two children in the Sioux Falls School District, said.

Kunkel has formed a group called the Parents Action Committee and says he and more than 300 other parents aren't happy with this policy.

"It could fall into the wrong hands,” Kunkel said. “There are weirdos all over the world. There are weirdos in the places where that information is disseminated to; you can't control that."

But the district says not just anyone can get a copy. Those interested must apply, and the district consults the superintendent and its attorneys.

"We're concerned about kids' safety. We don't want to do anything to jeopardize students and we scrutinize those requests," Smith says.

Smith says that information can't be separated. If you opt out of having your child's name in the directory, their name also goes off class lists, student rosters, theater programs or anywhere where those names might be published.

"That's the way our policy is, based on the advice from our school attorneys," Smith said.

But Kunkel says it goes too far and hopes to see a change.

"What I want is for the school board to be forced to listen to the wishes of the parents," Kunkel said.

Smith says the policy's been in place since the 1970's, when the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act was enacted. KELOLAND News asked what's to stop those outside organizations from turning around and sharing or even selling that information themselves, and he says they've never had a problem with that.

Click on the video player below to hear Smith explain the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and why the district can't seperate information.

40-year-old charged with cyberbullying for posting 17-year-old's info on Craigslist

ST. LOUIS — A Missouri woman has been charged with cyberbullying for allegedly posting photos and personal information of a teenage girl on the “Casual Encounters” section of Craigslist after an Internet argument.

Prosecutors said 40-year-old Elizabeth A. Thrasher posted the 17-year-old’s picture, e-mail address and cell phone number on the Web site in a posting that suggested the girl was seeking a sexual encounter.

St. Charles County Lt. Craig McGuire said Tuesday that the victim is the daughter of Thrasher’s ex-husband’s girlfriend. The girl, who has not been named, received lewd messages and photographs from men she didn’t know and contacted police.

There are 0 responses to this story. Click here to join the conversation

Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned.

Click here for our full user agreement.