Hamish Barwick reports: The call for mandatory data breach notifications and potential legal proceedings against enterprises who fail to protect customer data has become a little louder in Australia, according to the findings of a new survey. The report, entitled Australian Consumer Data Survey 2012, which was conducted for iSeek Communications in July 2012 with…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
AU: Schools clueless about IT security, reveals study
Byron Connolly reports: Almost one in two Australian secondary and tertiary schools do not have an IT security awareness program in place and alarmingly, 53 per cent didn’t know what information was taken during a data breach, according to a study commissioned by Symantec.cloud. The study asked around 500 teachers and administration staff at 168…
Widely used fingerprint reader exposes Windows passwords in seconds
Dan Goodin reports: Fingerprint-reading software preinstalled on laptops sold by Dell, Sony, and at least 14 other PC makers contains a serious weakness that makes it trivial for hackers with physical control of the machine to quickly recover account passwords, security researchers said. The UPEK Protector Suite, which was acquired by Melbourne, Florida-based Authentec two years ago, is…
Scottish councils lose personal data of 10,000
From PublicService.co.uk Hundreds of council data security incidents have led to the loss of data on more than 10,000 people in Scotland over the past five years, figures released under freedom of information laws have revealed. Laptops containing images of children were lost, as was confidential pension information and Blackberry devices containing sensitive emails. These…
Glasgow City Council slammed for losing 700 computers
Kathleen Hall reports: Glasgow City Council has been slammed for losing more than 700 laptops and PCs in a probe into the body’s security malpractice. The council has lost 256 unencrypted laptops and nearly 450 PCs. It also has a further 541 unencrypted laptops, according to an audit report. The news follows the theft of…
Council data breaches increase by ‘alarming’ 1,600 per cent
Data breaches across the UK have dramatically increased in the past five years, figures released under freedom of information laws have revealed. Information disclosed by the Information Commissioner’s Office to a data security firm showed a major growth in self-reported data breaches every year. On average the increase since 2007 stood at more than 1,000…