Former University of California staffer sentenced to jail for data leak

Contributed by Roumiana Deltcheva (Wednesday, November 03, 2010) | Category : Email security

Cam Giang, a former member of the University of California San Francisco Medical Center IT staff, has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for orchestrating a data leak.

Giang used the names, birthdays and Social Security numbers of co-workers to fill out hundreds of online surveys to collect gift vouchers worth $100 each. StayWell had offered the vouchers as incentive for filling out the online surveys, but began receiving complaints that employees were unable to participate. It turned out Giang had used their information to fill out the survey.

"Mr. Giang never intended to steal their identity, and other than losing the opportunity to participate in StayWell's marketing surveys, the victims did not lose anything," says a memorandum from Giang's attorney asking the judge for probation instead of jail time.

UCSF warned 486 people in May that their information had been accessed.

A hospital in London also had to recently reassess its data-leak prevention after the confidential information of 56 patients was misplaced by a doctor. The North West London Hospitals NHS Trust doctor lost the documents on a train.