Jason Lewis reports: A security firm responsible for guarding some of Britain’s most sensitive Government documents, including the two Iraq War dossiers, has been axed following the damaging leak of the MPs’ expenses files. The move comes after a long-running internal investigation into who released the damaging material which led to Ministerial resignations and a…
Author: Dissent
Informant offers to sell names of tax dodgers (updated)
A secret informant has offered to sell the German taxman the names of 1,500 Germans who have funds hidden in Switzerland, a newspaper reported Saturday. The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said the unnamed whistleblower had supplied details of five accounts worth some €1 million ($1.4 million) in tax as proof and demanded €2.5 million for…
AU: VicRoads staff share private data
Peter Mickelburough reports: The personal details of 3.4 million Victorians continue to be abused by VicRoads staff despite a State Government bid to stamp out licensing fraud. Seven VicRoads workers have been sacked or resigned for improperly accessing or releasing information from the authority’s database in the past two years. Two other staff have been…
Group Therapy
Here’s an example of where patients knowingly give up privacy in exchange for more information that can help them in their struggles… Ronnie Bachman reports: The day that Dave deBronkart learned he had Stage 4 kidney cancer, his doctor handed him a prescription slip. On it, he’d scribbled ACOR.org. Within 11 minutes of submitting his…
UK: Skipton faces fine for serious data breach
Jeff Prestridge reports: Skipton Building Society faces a heavy fine from the Financial Services Authority after a serious breach of data security procedures that resulted in more than 3,000 savers receiving financial details about other customers of the mutual. […] When Skipton mailed 108,000 account statements to savers last weekend, 3,115 went out with the…
Humboldt State University employee info possibly compromised after computer virus
Chris Durant reports: A Humboldt State University computer infected with a virus may have exposed the personal information of 3,500 people employed by the school between 2002 and 2006. HSU spokesman Paul Mann said no employees or former employees have yet reported having their information — like Social Security numbers — being used or stolen….