From the what-the-HELL-were-they-thinking department: A former local authority education worker who illegally shared personal information about schoolchildren and their parents has been prosecuted. Samira Bouzkraoui, 24, took a screenshot of a council spreadsheet concerning children and their eligibility for free school meals before sending it to the estranged parent of one of the pupils via…
Category: Government Sector
AU: City of Ballarat privacy nightmare: resident details posted online
Ashleigh McMillan reports: More than 70 Ballarat residents have had their home addresses – and in some cases phone numbers and email addresses – leaked by City of Ballarat. […] The list included the personal details of a number of eminent Ballarat personalities and those with sensitive professions, including lawyers, doctors, business owners and police…
PA: City of Allentown computer systems hit by virus that may require an expensive fix
Daniel Patrick Sheehan and Emily Opilo report: The City of Allentown has been hit by a serious computer virus that is affecting an array of systems, with some shut down as a precaution while a team of outside experts tries to fix the problem. City spokesman Mike Moore said the malware, which has the potential…
AU: Immigration department reveals string of data breaches
Rohan Pearce reports: The immigration department has revealed that over the last five years it has reported 18 data breaches to the Office of the Australian Information Commission. In an answer to a question on notice from a Senate Estimates hearing earlier this year, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) revealed it reported…
Data breach again: Salary bill of Supplyco staff leaked on WhatsApp
Joji Simon reports: Kochi: Close on the heels of the data leak from Service and Payroll Repository of Kerala (SPARK), the database of over 5.5 lakh government employees and pensioners in the state, another serious security breach of employee database maintained by a state government department has been reported. The breach was detected in the Supplyco…
Social Security numbers from thousands of California state workers exposed in data breach
Adam Ashton reports: Social Security numbers for thousands of state employees and contractors were exposed in a recent data breach at the Department of Fish and Wildlife, according to a memo that the department sent to its workers this week. The department discovered the data breach on Dec. 22, but did not disclose the breach…