Catharine Tunney reports: Someone went to the RCMP with an allegation of sexual assault — only to see their most closely-guarded private information being leaked. The force is now apologizing after the wrong label was applied to an outgoing package containing three operational files dealing with sexual assaults. Those files included a complainant’s name, date of birth, address,…
Category: Government Sector
MA: Concord police erroneously expose citizens’ personal info
Aaron Curtis reports: The Concord Police Department is alerting residents to the possible exposure of private citizen’s personal information after the wrong version of the weekly police log was accidentally posted to the town’s website, according to a press release. The log file posted contained the personal information of individuals who reported incidents or were…
China most active in cyber espionage against U.S.: Coats
Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu report: Russia and China pose the biggest espionage and cyber attack threats to the United States and are more aligned than they have been in decades, the director of national intelligence told U.S. senators in testimony on worldwide threats on Tuesday. While the two countries seek to expand their global…
‘Worst’ Ransomware Attack Hits Salisbury Police Department in Maryland
NBC Washington reports: A Maryland police department says it experienced its “worst computer network attack” in its history, after the attacker accessed its network through a longtime software vendor. Salisbury police Capt. Rich Kaiser tells The Daily Times of Salisbury that the department’s entire internal computer network was compromised Jan. 9 in a ransomware attack….
Alaska notifying at least 500,000 residents about data security breach previously disclosed in June
Update: The state subsequently revised its estimate to 87,000 letters. How did it get the numbers so wrong — apart from the question of why it has taken so long to send out notifications. This does NOT inspire confidence in the state’s ability to protect ePHI and to notify people promptly in the event…
Privacy breach hits 45,000 recipients of Ontario’s disability support program
Kristin Rushowy reports: Ontario’s social services minister has apologized after the Mississauga disability support program office mistakenly emailed the private information of 45,000 people to 100 recipients. “On December 20th, due to a clerical error, the Mississauga ODSP office unintentionally shared some individuals’ information over email,” said Lisa MacLeod in a statement. [..] The December…