Dan Worth reports: Public sector organisations including the police, NHS and councils have had to pay out £2m in fines as a result of poor data handling practices over the past 18 months. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) was given the ability to levy penalties of a maximum of £500,000 in April 2011 in an…
Author: Dissent
Fake Japanese app steals 10m pieces of personal info
Dave Evans reports: A group of Japanese app developers could face up to three years imprisonment after being arrested over a smartphone virus scam. Initial reports said that about 90,000 smartphones were infected by the virus which extracted personal information stored on users’ handsets. The apps, marketed to unsuspecting customers as a download called “The Movie”,…
Rental leases with personal information found outside apartment complex
Keke Collins reports from South Carolina: Pictures taken in July show boxes of old leasing agreements from Cypress Cove Apartments in West Ashley tossed outside the complex’s storage unit area. The papers, which were discovered this past July, were full of social security numbers, credit reports, W-2 forms, addresses and phone numbers from previous residents….
Some updates on the South Carolina Dept. of Revenue breach
Some updates while I was offline due to Hurricane Sandy. Well, I’m still without power, and our street is still impassable and yet another storm is due in two days, but thankfully the library is open and I can keep warm here for a bit each day… From the I-was-waiting-for-this dept.: Security experts blew raspberries…
Security breach on NS portal
Terence Lim Eu Seng writes: While updating my particulars via the National Service portal upon receiving a call-up notification, I noticed that my “father’s” information was already filled in with a stranger’s name, Identity Card number and address. The surname did not even match mine. How could the Defence Ministry violate its privacy statement with…
Personal data routinely leaked from Obama and Romney websites
Both the Barack Obama and Mitt Romney campaigns swear that their websites don’t collect personally identifiable information from visitors, but a new report reveals that neither candidate can really back that claim up. Responding to the New York Times for an article published just this week, representatives from both presidential contenders say no private information…