Martin Austermuhle reports: The D.C. Department of Human Services says it mistakenly disclosed confidential information of close to 1,500 households receiving housing assistance to a homeless advocacy group, which then used the information to contact those people directly — a move that the city agency says was unethical, but that the group defends as being in the…
Category: Exposure
45,000 Facebook Users Leave One-Star Ratings After Hacker’s Unjust Arrest
Catalin Cimpanu reports: Over 45,000 users have left one-star reviews on a company’s Facebook page after the business reported a security researcher to police and had him arrested in the middle of the night instead of fixing a reported bug. The arrest took place this week in Hungary after an 18-year-old found a flaw in…
Wells Fargo Accidentally Releases Trove of Data on Wealthy Clients
Serge F. Kovaleski and Stacy Cowley report that external counsel for Wells Fargo Advisors appear to have over-responded to a discovery request by inadvertently including financial details on 50,000 Wells Fargo high-wealth clients: When a lawyer for Gary Sinderbrand, a former Wells Fargo employee, subpoenaed the bank as part of a defamation lawsuit against a…
Insurer glitch sends erroneous reports to 657 employers
Holly Fletcher reports: A computer glitch at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee resulted in some member reports being sent to group benefit administrators. The breach did not include social security numbers, addresses, bank or financial information or health information. Because of the glitch, 657 employers who have accounts with BCBST received information meant for other companies…
UK: Sutton Council apologizes after publishing names of benefit recipients in a ‘concerning’ data bungle
Liam McInerney reports: Sutton Council has apologised after it “inadvertently” published names of members of the public who have received benefit payments. Those who received payments in May and June this year for disability, adoption, fostering allowances, day care respite and special needs education that totalled over £500 had their names and payments listed on…
The Government Has Finally Stopped Publicizing Abuse Victims’ Personal Information
P.R. Lockhart reports: Almost two months after revelations that the government had posted personal information of undocumented victims of abuse in a publicly searchable database, US Customs and Immigration Enforcement says that it has corrected the issue. In May, Mother Jones reported that the names of undocumented abuse victims were searchable in the Department of Homeland Security’s…