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Imprudent Curiosity?
In the past week, two high profile cases of improper viewing of personal information hit the wires. Ironically, there is much good news in both incidents. Note that these were cases of imprudent curiosity not of information leakage or theft. Workers were caught snooping around and disciplined or fired. The good news is that companies are increasingly tracking user activity, in particular user access to sensitive information. One way to track user activity is by collecting and analyzing log data. Remember to also protect archived log data as legal evidence if you want to use the data to substantiate employee dismissals.
UCLA Health System employees reportedly accessed Britney Spears' medical records without authorization. The Los Angeles Times reported about a week ago that 25 staff members, including six physicians, could be disciplined or fired. UCLA's medical center immediately launched investigations and the UCLA chief compliance officer revealed that the hospital has "people dedicated to looking at records to monitor access". When employees look at a patient's records electronically, they leave an electronic trail. "The systems track which screens they view and for how long".
Days later, news broke about a similar case of 'imprudent curiosity'. The State Department confirmed that that some of its workers had improperly rummaged through the passport files of all three presidential candidates, Obama, Clinton, and McCain. Two contract employees were fired and a third was disciplined for accessing Obama's passport data. A department spokesman said: ``Our initial view is this was imprudent curiosity on the part of these three individuals,'' Still, the State Department was taking steps ``to assure ourselves that it is nothing more than that.''
Posted March 24, 2008 in | Permalink
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