Benjamin Preiss reports: Ballarat City Council’s online network was in meltdown yesterday after it was discovered somebody had broken into the system. One source, who had specific details about the security scare, said a teenager from regional Victoria had gained access to the system. ”Essentially the level of access that’s available is complete and unrestricted…
Author: Dissent
UK insurer hit with biggest ever data loss fine
John Oates reports: Zurich Insurance must pay an enormous £2.3m fine for losing thousands of British people’s personal data. The fine was imposed not by the Information Commissioner’s Office but by the Financial Services Authority. Zurich Insurance lost 46,000 customer records including some bank details when a tape back-up went missing between two sites in…
New German ID cards easily hacked
The sensitive personal information found on the new German identification cards with data chips scheduled for nationwide introduction this November can be easily hacked, according to testing done by a TV news show. Public broadcaster ARD’s show “Plusminus” teamed up with the hacker organisation the Chaos Computer Club to find out how secure the controversial…
Russian government email servers hacked
Evgeniya Chaykovskaya reports: On Monday it turned out that the Federal Service of Protection (FSO) is not that good at protecting its own privacy. Yesterday internet forums were bubbling with information about a hack into the FSO internal email system. The attack was aimed at an email server of one of the services’ departments, the…
NZ: Identity Database To Be Opened To Private Businesses
I know, I know…. The Government’s database that is used to confirm identities will be opened to private businesses under a bill introduced to Parliament today. Internal Affairs Minister Nathan Guy says they will be able to use the Data Validation Service to check the identity of customers, but only under strict conditions of security,…
OR: Eastmoreland Surgical Clinic Burglarized
Excerpted from a press release from ID Experts: The Eastmoreland Surgical Clinic, Dr. William Graham’s office was burglarized on or about July 5, 2010. Three password-protected desktop computers, one password-protect laptop computer and a backup drive were stolen. The police were immediately notified and a police report was filed with the Portland Police Bureau. Notification…