Bill Sizemore of The Virginian-Pilot reports that the state is sending breach notifications to 530,000 Virginians whose Social Security numbers may have been in the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program database that was hacked on April 30. An additional 1,400 users of the database who may have provided Social Security numbers when they registered for the…
Author: Dissent
AU: Westpac ‘stuff-up’ puts confidential customer details online
Mark Hawthorne of The Brisbane Times reports: A security breach has allowed confidential Westpac shareholder information to be included in an official document published on the Australian Securities Exchange website. A document Westpac released to the ASX in March contains the security holder reference numbers (SRN) and holder identification numbers (HIN) of up to 20…
Sony notifies 5000 customers of credit card breach
A recent security breach at the Park Ridge, New Jersey headquarters of Sony Card Marketing & Services Company (CMSC) affected customers who signed up for the Sony Rewards program. According to a letter sent by John Briesch, the President of CMSC, to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, CMSC discovered that “unauthorized copies were made…
UK: ID database snooped for celebrities’ secrets
Mark Ballard of The Inquirer reports that one Glasgow City Council worker was fired and another resigned before he could be fired after they were caught snooping into the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information Systems (CIS) database. The database forms the core of the government’s identity card scheme and contains 85 million…
OIS Commentary: And some walls will come tumbling down
One of yesterday’s posts on PHIprivacy.net reports a data breach involving Kelsey-Seybold Clinic that has not been reported in the mainstream media. I contacted Kelsey-Seybold after a site visitor alerted me to the breach. The report is frustratingly short on details, though, because Kelsey-Seybold could — and did — simply ignore questions it did not…
NZ: Police investigate alleged leak from DNA database
Police are investigating a claim an Environmental Science and Research worker has made an “inappropriate disclosure” from the national DNA profile databank. ESR said today a criminal investigation had started. “A staff member has been suspended pending the outcome of the police and internal investigations,” a spokeswoman said. The alleged security breach was the first…