Tim Lohman reports: The confidentiality of personal information collected and used by the public sector can be, and has been, easily compromised, a Victorian Auditor-General report has found. The Maintaining the Integrity and Confidentiality of Personal Information report, which examined information security in three Victorian government departments, found that the ability to penetrate databases, the…
Month: November 2009
UK: Action taken after details of 110,000 individuals are stolen
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found Verity Trustees Ltd to be in breach of the Data Protection Act after the Trustees reported the theft of a laptop computer containing the names, addresses, dates of birth, salaries and national insurance numbers of around 110,000 individuals. The laptop, which also contained the bank details of around…
Hackers steal credit-card numbers from restaurant customers
Theodore Decker reports: Diners who frequent a popular Downtown restaurant should review their charge-card statements because hackers broke into its computer system to loot debit- and credit-card numbers, police said today. Between 30 and 50 people have reported fraudulent charges on their accounts, and Columbus detectives said that anyone who used a charge card at…
NZ: Skim versus hack: Council still in the dark
Rob O’Neill reports: Auckland City is referring all enquiries about how its carparking systems were compromised, leading to the reissue of thousands of credit cards, to Westpac, which is leading the investigation into the incident. Spokesman Glyn Jones says the council “hasn’t been told conclusively” whether skimming or hacking were used to breach customer security….
Email goof exposes Sea Ray Boats employee data
On October 21, an employee of Sea Ray Boats unintentionally sent an email to 698 dealership personnel that contained the names, contact information, and Social Security numbers of 341 of the 698 employees. The company realized its mistake, and within an hour, sent out another email asking recipients to destroy the first email. Despite the…
Update: Second B.C. employee fired in document security breach
Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines report: The B.C. government has fired a second employee in connection with a security breach in which the files of 1,400 income assistance clients turned up in a government worker’s home. Citizens’ Services Minister Ben Stewart confirmed today that the second employee was “involved with” the Public Service Agency within…