Andy Greenberg reports: The NSA’S elite teams of hackers have for years made it their mission to silently compromise computer systems around the globe. Now one group of anonymous hackers claims to have executed a counter-hack with none of the same discretion: They’ve brazenly announced the theft of a collection of files they say belonged to…
Category: Government Sector
2 officials sacked for not reporting loss of birth records that could have exposed 1,500 Texans to ID theft
Robert T. Garrett reports: The state registrar of vital statistics and her top deputy have been fired for not disclosing several years ago that their office lost a book containing records of 500 Texas births in early 1993. The missing book — one of about 800 volumes of birth records that state workers assemble each year…
Four years later, case still open in SC Dept. of Revenue data breach
Tim Smith reports: Four years after South Carolina’s tax agency suffered the worst data breach in state history, 5 million attempts are made each week to gain unauthorized access to state government computers, which hold vast amounts of personal data belonging to taxpayers, employees and members of the public. […] Four years later, the…
UK: Domestic abuse privacy breach: Greater Manchester Police pays victim
BBC reports: A domestic abuse victim has received £75,000 from a police force after it revealed details of her treatment by a former boyfriend without her consent. The unnamed woman had agreed Greater Manchester Police (GMP) could refer to her experience in a training session providing she remained anonymous. However, she later learned her identity…
NL: Personal data of 3700 Ede residents leaked through municipal site
Janene Pieters reports: The personal information of about 3,700 Ede residents were accessed by unauthorized persons due to a security vulnerability on the municipal site, a spokesperson for the municipality confirmed to NU.nl. The unauthorized persons had access to a database that is linked to a contact form. Residents could submit a question or asked to be…
TN: 1,800 possibly affected by Anderson County government computer breach
WATE reports: Anderson County government officials and the sheriff’s office are investigating a possible computer security breach. County Law Director Jay Yeager sent a memo to all elected officials, school system employees, school board members, veterans service members and county contractors that there had been a “potential system-wide breach” of the main courthouse server. Yeager…