Ralph Ellis reports: The Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs is investigating the dumping of boxes of personal information — W-2 forms, bankruptcy files and old checks — into a bin at the Smyrna Recycling Center. The documents included W2 forms for 1998, 1999 and 2000, Social Security numbers and other sensitive personal information, a Smyrna…
Category: Exposure
Ca: Private bank information discarded (updated)
Sensitive documents containing personal banking information were recently discovered in a Campbell River recycling depot by a Nanaimo man. The documents were found at the Vancouver Island Recycling Centre earlier this month and the discovery raises questions about the proper disposal of sensitive information by financial institutions. A multi-coloured plastic ribbon, stretching about 15 metres…
Cyber-whistleblower stuns Latvia with tax heist
The Associated Press provides more info on a breach previously reported on this site that may have resulted in the acquisition of 7.4 million confidential files by a hacker’s group calling themselves the Fourth Awakening People’s Army (4ATA): One of the group’s members, who uses the name “Neo” — apparently in reference to the hero…
UK: Mortgage company accidentally discloses over 15,000 account details
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found Redstone Mortgages Ltd in breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA) after personal information relating to 15,333 mortgage accounts was emailed to a member of the public by mistake. The information, which included personal data relating to individuals’ arrears or possession proceedings, was sent to Redstone’s head office…
Ca: Alarming breach in privacy investigated at London school
An armload of personal documents — health records and criminal record checks among them — was found carelessly tossed out by a private vocational school in London, an alarming breach of security, the school’s director says. The bulk of the documents included criminal record checks, transcripts, diplomas, doctors’ notes, immunization and vaccination forms, health card…
Equifax offers employees free Equifax credit monitoring after SSN exposed in mailing gaffe
After Equifax recently sent out IRS W-2 statements to most of its current employees and some former employees, they discovered that some employees’ control ID numbers were partially or completely viewable in the return address window of the envelope used by the payroll vendor. In an unspecified number of cases for U.S. employees, the control…