Catalin Cimpanu reports: Powerful spying malware infiltrated the personal laptop of the head of the German Federal Chancellery (GFC). The current GFC chief is Peter Altmaier, whose main role is to assist German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the affairs of the German state. The infection was discovered in December 2014, and after further investigation, German…
Category: Government Sector
UK: Another ‘data disaster’ at Islington Council after third major breach in four years
James Morris reports: An investigation has been launched after yet another data leak by Islington Council. On Sunday, it emerged personal information about penalty charge notices was freely available on the council’s parking appeals website. Information included scanned cheques, medical information to justify appeals – and even one person’s prison record. It is the council’s…
Did China Just Hack the International Court Adjudicating Its South China Sea Territorial Claims?
Jason Healey and Anni Piiparinen report: Attribution for cyberattacks is said to be notoriously difficult, but sometimes context and timing are damning evidence. In July, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague conducted a hearing on the territorial dispute in the South China Sea between the Philippines and China. On the third day of…
TX: Emergence Health Network notifies 11,100 mental health patients of possible PHI breach
First, their press release: (El Paso, Texas October 16, 2015) Emergence Health Network (EHN) is in the process of contacting individuals regarding an unauthorized disclosure of protected health information. An EHN computer server was compromised in August through an unauthorized internet connection. The affected computer server was disabled to minimize a compromise. It is not…
Miami-Dade patient information compromised
Daniel Chang reports: About 150 clients of the Florida Department of Health’s Children’s Medical Services program in Miami-Dade may have had their personal information compromised after vendors were faxed a clinic roster containing names, birth dates and membership numbers, agency officials reported Friday. […] The breach occurred when four vendors that provide services to the…
In wake of OPM breach, DoD proposes hack victim database
Roy Urrico reports: Weeks after the Federal government began sending snail mail notifications to the 21.5 million victims of the Office of Personnel Management breach, the Department of Defense proposed creating a hack victims database. The Pentagon’s proposed database, the Defense Manpower Data Center, would store the information in a “holding file,” according to an…