Dustin Volz reports: Fewer than a quarter of 21 million federal workers hit by a major computer hack have been officially told that their personal information was compromised, six months after the breach was detected, a U.S. government official said on Tuesday. About 5 million notifications about the hack have been sent out so far,…
Category: Government Sector
Pennsylvania man gets prison for hiring “hacker” to erase court fines
From the do-you-know-who-you’re-hiring-on-Craigslist dept: Miles Snyder reports: A Harrisburg man will serve at least two years in prison for recruiting a computer hacker to wipe out fines he owed to Lancaster County. Zachary J. Landis, 27, was sentenced to 2-4 years in state prison after pleading guilty last week to felony counts of computer trespass, unlawful…
Investigation: Burglar Uses Personal Info Sold by Minnesota to Target Victims
Megan Newquist reports: Imagine a burglar stalking his victims and taking pictures of their cars in parking lots, knowing their whereabouts and then breaking into their homes. Eden Prairie police say that’s exactly what 45-year-old David William Pollard was doing, but they didn’t know how until he was arrested leaving a Minnetonka home on April…
Wisconsin senators want answers from the VA about repeated breaches
Earlier today, I posted an item and commentary about a breach affecting veterans in Wisconsin. Adam Schrager’s report indicated that there were recurring problems and that the VA knew about these problems but has not addressed them to prevent recurrences. One of the problems involves the VA’s software not flagging SSN that are unhyphenated for mandatory encryption. The VA…
Our veterans deserve better infosecurity of their information
When News3 in Madison, Wisconsin started digging into a breach involving 637 veterans’ Social Security numbers, what they found should have everyone asking the VA some hard questions. Adam Schrager reports: The Social Security numbers of Wisconsin veterans are being sent via email without encryption despite numerous federal laws and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs…
Regin Spyware Found on Merkel Assistant’s Laptop
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…