From a new GAO report: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) improved its information security by addressing weaknesses previously identified by GAO, including separating the user production network from the internal management network. However, weaknesses continue to limit the effectiveness of other security controls. In particular: While SEC had issued policies and implemented controls based…
Category: Government Sector
Whistle-blowing hacker to become founding member of new political party in Latvia
The Baltic News Service reports: University of Latvia researcher Ilmars Poikans, also known by the nickname Neo, will become one of the founding members of the new political party to be established on May 3 at the initiative of independent MP Artuss Kaimins. Back in 2009, Neo stole from the Latvian State Revenue Service electronic data…
UK: West Dunbartonshire Council warned of court action by ICO over data protection failures
A Scottish council has been rapped by the regulator for repeatedly failing to train staff around data protection. West Dunbartonshire Council were told to implement training on several occasions, as well as being advised to put in place a policy around home working. But their failure to do so ultimately contributed to a data breach…
Amazon denies Movimiento Cuidadano’s claim that they were “hacked”
DataBreaches.net is not alone in being outraged that in response to a massive data leak that put the information of 87 million Mexican voters at risk, Movimiento Ciudadano appears to be falsely claiming that the voter data list they stored on Amazon cloud was “hacked.” The political party has been repeating that false claim on Twitter and in…
PH: BIR probes employees for leaking sensitive data
Ben O. de Vera reports: The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is looking into an alleged leak of confidential information obtained from tax tipsters. In Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 50-2016 issued last April 22, BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said the leak was allegedly perpetrated by the bureau’s own officers and employees. Henares said the…
IE: Details of more than 100 Cork households stolen from census enumerator’s car
Joe Leogue reports that the Central Statistics Office has notified the affected households, but says it is unlikely the information stolen would be of interest “to anyone other than census staff”. A spokesperson for the CSO said the information was contained in an Enumerator Record Book (ERB) which was stolen from a car at the Red…