The Associated Press reports that a New Hampshire State Prison inmate was found in possession of a list containing details — including social security numbers — of Corrections Department workers. Officials believe that the inmate might have obtained the list when he worked at a warehouse, where a copy of the list was waiting to…
Author: Dissent
Employees sacked for ID card data breach
The database in question holds data on 92 million people in the U.K. About 200,000 people have access to it. If they cannot adequately secure the database from misuse by employees, well……. Nine local authority workers have been sacked after illegally accessing personal details of the public held on the government’s national identity database. In…
Scammers may have thousands of bank account numbers
Phony debt collectors are calling consumers, equipped with their Social Security and bank account numbers, claiming they have defaulted on a payday loan, according to the Better Business Bureau. The BBB said the callers tell people they are with the “Financial Accountability Association” or the “Federal Legislation of Unsecured Loans.” Because the scammers have so…
Security lapse makes GPAs visible
Some may not consider this a breach, and it involves no financial data. The university pointed out that the exposed data could not be used for ID theft, and they’re probably quite correct in that, but what about FERPA and the privacy of education records? The University [of Oregon] has fixed a security breach in…
‘Secret’ Swedish police data sold by criminals
Supposedly secret police lists containing details about Sweden’s most dangerous criminals are up for sale across the country among members of the Swedish underworld. The documents have apparently been leaked from the Stockholm police’s Criminal Investigation Department. The lists, known as the Alcatraz List and Nova List, contain a wide-range of information about Sweden’s toughest…
Personal data mishandled at Commerce Dept.
The names and Social Security numbers of at least 27,000 Commerce Department employees were exposed to a risk of identity theft following an inappropriate transfer of the personal information in mid-July, according to a letter sent to department employees last week. An employee with the National Finance Center mistakenly sent an Excel spreadsheet containing the…