Cristian Angeloni reports: The Swiss Federal Council has halted its automatic exchange of information (AEOI) agreement with Bulgaria. The move follows a problem with data security in the Eastern European country in July 2019, when a leak exposed financial account information of four million Bulgarians and foreign taxpayers. Although the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency was…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
ED can withhold names of tax evaders in Panama Papers: Central Information Commission
PTI reports: The names of alleged tax evaders appearing in the Panama Papers leak can be withheld by the Enforcement Directorate from disclosure, the Central Information Commission has held. The Commission made these observations while deciding the plea of Durga Prasad Choudhary who did not get a satisfactory response from the agency on his RTI…
Public dataset to help researchers predict malicious activity
Sara Barker reports: Australian researchers have created what they are calling ‘the largest public available dataset of malicious internet activity’ of its kind. They hope it will help cybersecurity specialists predict what security threats the future could bring. CRISO’s Data61, Macquarie University, University of Sydney, and Nokia Bell Labs developed the dataset, called FinalBlacklist, that…
Booking site’s data breach costs hit NT$33 million
CNA reports: Several customers of online travel website Booking.com in Taiwan have been vulnerable to fraud this year because of leaks of personal information, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said Sunday in a statement. A total of 228 members of Booking.com were defrauded of NT$33.62 million (US$1.09 million) in the first nine months of 2019…
GA: Cornelia fends off third ransomware attack of the year, upgrades firewall
Rob Moore reports: A ransomware attack on City of Cornelia’s computerized billing system last week resulted in a day of lost productivity, but city leaders are taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. “We did not get to the point of like Atlanta where they actually held us [for] ransom,” City Manager Donald Anderson…
Defense Department to tighten data security after settlement with veterans group
Military Times reports: The Defense Department will revamp its Servicemembers Civil Relief Act databases following charges the online information sites exposed millions of troops’ and veterans’ personal information to identity thieves and scammers, officials announced Thursday. Leaders from Vietnam Veterans of America, which filed a lawsuit against the department to force the changes, called the move an important…