Rick Karlin reports: Sixteen employees of the state Office of Children and Family Services have been suspended for allegedly snooping in confidential files relating to a co-worker. The victim of the alleged snooping, Kristen Trapalis, was arrested in May and charged with possession of marijuana and endangering the welfare of a child, but those charges were later dropped. Ironically,…
Category: Government Sector
IL: Social Security numbers are disclosed on mailings to participants in Bright Directions college savings program
Monique Garcia report: The Social Security numbers of more than 36,000 people enrolled in a college savings program run by the Illinois treasurer’s office appeared on the outside of envelopes mailed to participants late last month. The potentially compromising information was printed near the space designated for the recipient’s name and address on quarterly newsletters…
PA: Names and Social Security numbers of Public School Employees’ Retirement System members exposed on Internet
Regina Medina reports: A recent security breach caused the names and Social Security numbers of about 2,000 members of the pension fund for Pennsylvania public school employees to be accessible to the public, state officials said Tuesday. The Public School Employees’ Retirement System sent a notification letter about the situation to about 2,000 of its…
Ca: ‘Insider’ government data breaches soaring
Emily Chung reports: The proportion of “insider” internet security breaches caused by employees are rising quickly within Canadian government departments and agencies, a new study shows. Insider breaches in the government sector grew by 28 per cent between 2010 and 2011 and are up 68 per cent since 2008, the fourth annual Telus-Rotman joint study…
GA: Crime victims’ personal information found in used car
A video news report from Georgia is worth noting. It seems a now-former police officer in the Clayton County Police Department sold his car to someone who, months later, discovered that a pad left in the car contained a lot of personal and sensitive details of crime victims and other incidents the officer had investigate….
UK: Oliver Letwin breached data protection laws, report confirms (updated)
Hélène Mulholland reports the follow-up to a breach reported previously on this blog: Oliver Letwin committed a series of data protection breaches by dumping correspondence from constituents in a park bin close to Downing Street, according to the information commissioner. The letters and emails contained the names, addresses and contact details of about 20 individuals,…