Barbara Carmen reports: Franklin County property owners paying taxes online before Monday’s deadline might have innocently allowed thieves trolling cyberspace to snag checking-account or credit-card numbers. Computer experts installed safeguards in 2001 when the county adopted a second Web address, one thought to be more memorable. But many people were familiar with the old address,…
Category: Government Sector
NJ: Documents Containing Personal Info from City Hall Found in Public Dumpster
Phaedra Laird reports: Authorities in Middle Township are investigating how documents from Municipal Hall containing personal information like social security numbers, landed in a public dumpster. The information, which was handed over to officials, could’ve easily landed in the wrong hands. “Oh, I got some more social security numbers.” When Carla Carpenter came to the…
OH: Disclosure law doesn’t cover misplaced documents
Josh Sweigart reports: If a government misplaces a pile of documents containing confidential information in a Dumpster, they don’t have to tell anyone. If they lose a password protected laptop computer, state law requires public disclosure within 45 days. That is why Butler County wasn’t required to tell the 10,600 people potentially affected by a…
IL: Springfield publishes private info on FOIA website
Bruce Rushton reports: Admitting that it “goofed,” the city of Springfield put documents online that contained sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, home and work telephone numbers and even a bank account number and the name of someone who called the state anonymously to report suspected child abuse. The documents were…
(follow-up) Woman sentenced for stealing Durham city workers’ identities
As a follow-up to a case previously covered on this site, WRAL now reports: A Durham woman was sentenced Thursday to prison after pleading guilty to using the personal information of city employees to obtain credit cards and purchase items online and by phone. Alexis Faison, 27, of 1028 Slateworth Drive, pleaded guilty to 39…
(UPDATE) Over 21,000 affected by DentaQuest breach in March still have not been notified
Cross-posted from phiprivacy.net: From the what-took-so-long dept: On May 11, this site reported that the New Mexico Human Services Department had just revealed that a laptop theft that occurred on March 20 affected about 9,600 people. The laptop was stolen from the car of an employee of West Monroe Partners, a subcontractor for DentaQuest, the…