Nathan Ingraham reports: Earlier this year, a hacking group broke into the personal email account of CIA director John Brenner and published a host of sensitive attachments that it got its hands on (yes, Brenner should not have been using his AOL email address for CIA business). Now, Wired reports the group has hit a much more sensitive and presumably secure target:…
Category: Government Sector
UK: Probe after 1,000 tenants caught up in data security breach
Stuart Greer reports: A social landlord has admitted a data security breach where private information of almost 1,000 residents’ was released. A member of staff from the Customer Experience Team at Peaks and Plains Housing Trust accidentally sent a mass email to 994 residents on Wednesday morning, but failed to use the ‘blind carbon copy’…
UK: Police watchdog to probe claims 2002 theft of Special Branch personnel info at Castlereagh police station involved inside help
On March 17, 2002, there was a break-in and burglary at Castlereagh police station. The records that were stolen put lives at risk, as the stolen data included a list of officers in the Special Branch intelligence unit with contact details, and the code names of paramilitary agents and their handlers. Dozens of officers subsequently had to move…
Maryland admits to exposing personal information of hundreds
WUSA reports: Maryland’s Department of Information Technology is admitting to exposing the “Personally Identifiable Information” of hundreds of people and companies that do business with the state by accidentally publishing a list of them on a public website. Data exposed included Social Security and Tax ID numbers. Read more on WUSA.
U.S. Senators calls for federal investigation after News 3 stories on Veterans Administration breach
Adam Schrager has more on how News 3’s investigative reporting has resulted in a response from U.S. Senators: Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) is calling for a federal investigation into how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs handles the personally identifiable information of America’s veterans. This comes after a News 3 investigation into an instance in April…
UK: Crown Prosecution Service fined £200,000 for breach involving contractor
Back in September, I prefaced a breach post involving the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service with the comment, “This is one of those really terrible breaches that are the stuff of nightmares.” It appears the Information Commissioner’s Office concurred, as CPS has been fined £200,000 after laptops containing videos of police interviews were stolen from a private…