Anne Galloway reports that at least 500 Vermont state employees fell for a phishing scam on Thursday that compromised at least 50 employees’ W-2 information. Galloway provides the text of the phishing email in her report. Had the employees checked the From address, they might have been suspicious that it wasn’t from a .gov address, and the…
Category: Government Sector
New background check agency announced in wake of OPM hacks
It may go unnoticed while everyone focuses on the weather, but Greg Otto of FedScoop reports that The Obama administration will create a new office to conduct background checks on federal employees, in an effort to improve the security of personal information in the wake of the massive data breaches at the Office of Personnel Management. The formation of the National…
Hackers ‘Dox’ Miami Police Officers With Data Stolen From Government Database
Lorenzo Francesco-Bicchierai reports: A group of hackers has dumped the names, phone numbers and email addresses of more than 80 police officers from Miami, Florida, in what appears to be an attempt to “dox” the agents. The hackers appear to be loosely affiliated with the group of alleged teen hackers, known as “Crackas With Attitude”…
San Diego County employees’ details erroneously sent to Wells Fargo
Right before Christmas, the County of San Diego Benefits Division discovered that some employees’ personal information had been inadvertently shared with Wells Fargo. The problem arose when the county sent personal information of those employees enrolling in a Wells Fargo Health Savings Account. A programming error by the county’s service provider, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services, resulted in the additional transmission…
NY: Newburgh manager orders city’s cloud data deleted because of ‘security breach’
I’m not sure I understand what’s gone on here, but MidHudson News reports: City Manager Michael Ciaravino’s decision to wipe out all of the data on Newburgh’s cloud has prompted Councilwoman Cindy Holmes to demand an investigation. Holmes noted that as a result of the manager’s decision, she lost her two years of city information…
UK: String of data protection breaches by Leicester City Council staff revealed
Dan J. Martin reports: Details of a string of breaches of data protection laws by staff at Leicester City Council have been published. Information revealed by the authority outlines a series of errors by employees handling sensitive documents. Among the breaches were a series of letters posted to the wrong addresses, a form containing personal details falling…