THE  personal details of more than 7,000 mobile phone customers and employees were  contained on three stolen laptops, eircom has confirmed. The phone company  revealed bank account or credit card details of 550 eMobile and Meteor  customers is also at risk following the security breach. The Data Protection  Commissioner is investigating.

A laptop  containing thousands of Halton students’ names, numbers and birthdates — even  their standardized test scores — has been stolen, prompting the board to warn  all parents of a possible privacy breach.

A privacy breach by a “curious” nurse at Titus Regional Medial Center has resulted in letters to 108 former patients warning of a slight risk of identity theft.

More than a million customers have had their personal details “lost” after a data mix-up at a loan firm’s Birstall headquarters.

United Kingdom. Secret documents belonging to the British police were found on a municipal train, in which details of the security operation for the coming Olympics was described in detail. The police tried to dampen the hype, having announced that these materials do not place the work of security services under threat.

Last  weekend, an electronic device, which contained 11,000 recordings, was stolen  from a building of the University of Victoria. Among the compromised personal  data were social security numbers of employees, bank account details and other  information. The device was not encrypted.

The  European Commission has amended the law on the protection of personal data. The  Commission believes that priority tasks are the standardization of data defence  systems over the entire European territory, the widening of data subject law,  the toughening of punishment for unauthorised use of data. Among the amendments  is a series of proposals for the protection of children during the use of  internet resources. By the end of 2012, the Commission expects the approval of  the legal project by European states. In the event of a positive outcome, the  updated law will already take effect in 2013.

CSDN, employees of the largest Chinese communities of software developers, under the management of Bailan Midami Digital Technology Co, Ltd, published a text file on the Internet, which included information on account users; usernames, passwords and e-mails. As a result of the leak, 6 million people suffered. In the release it is not reported, how long the database was in open access. Now at CSDN, the passwords of all users, whose information was compromised, are actively being changed.

A Federal  Court in Switzerland has sentenced a former employee of Swiss bank Credit  Suisse to two years (on probation) and a fine of 3500 Swiss francs for the  theft of personal data of clients.

The  analytical centre of Infowatch is informing of a compromise of the European database of VISA holders. The Romanian bank CEC has  already blocked 17,000 VISA cards.