An update to a previously noted breach. Scott Merzbach reports: A public records request by the Daily Hampshire Gazette seeking more information about the disclosure of residents’ personal information through the Amherst municipal website yielded a heavily redacted letter that collector and treasurer Claire McGinnis sent to state Attorney General Maura Healey, notifying her office…
Category: Government Sector
PA: Two York County Court clerks leak police information to suspects
Taniel Orr reports: Two employees in a York District Judge’s office have been let go after officials say they gave out sensitive information, which included a police officer’s work schedule, to suspects. According to charging documents, Solmaria Martinez-Arce, 31, also known as “Beba,” and Brittany Koons, 29, both of York, were desk clerks in Magistrate…
Pentagon unveils new rules requiring contractors to disclose data breaches
Aliya Sternstein reports: New sweeping defense contractor rules on hack notifications take effect today, adding to a flurry of Pentagon IT security policies issued in recent years. Just this month, the Office of Management and Budget proposed guidelines to homogenize the way vendors secure data governmentwide. The Defense Department had already released three other policies that dictate how military vendors…
Ninth Circuit overturns CFAA verdicts for misusing databases
Orin Kerr writes: The Ninth Circuit has handed down United States v. Christensen, a case that touches on a bunch of computer crime issues that include the scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The court overturned CFAA convictions for employee misuse of a sensitive database. I think that result is correct, although I’m…
Audit: California agencies vulnerable to IT security breach
Juliet Williams of AP reports: Many California state agencies are not complying with the state’s information technology standards, leaving them vulnerable to a major security breach of sensitive data such as Social Security numbers, health information or tax returns, the state auditor reported Tuesday. “Our review found that many state entities have weaknesses in their…
The OPM breach details you haven’t seen
Sean Lyngaas reports: An official timeline of the Office of Personnel Management breach obtained by FCW pinpoints the hackers’ calibrated extraction of data and the government’s step-by-step response. It illuminates a sequence of events that lawmakers have struggled to pin down in public hearings with Obama administration officials. The timeline makes clear that the heist…