Dean Beeby reports: Canada Revenue Agency workers continue to poke into the confidential tax files of friends and foes, despite assurances to Canada’s privacy commissioner that the chronic problem of unauthorized access is being fixed. The 34 significant privacy breaches reported by the CRA to the commissioner in 2014 show all but two were deliberately…
Category: Government Sector
Major Patient Privacy Breach Alleged At Palo Alto VA
Benjamin Krause writes: VA OIG just reported that Palo Alto VA Health Care System unlawfully gave patient data to a private IT company despite employees not having cleared background checks. The watchdog investigated allegations that the Palo Alto VA informatics chief entered into an illegal agreement with a health care company called Kyron. VA OIG confirmed allegations…
Ca: Data breach turns into MLA laugh-fest
Les Leyne writes: Lovely to see how the latest data-privacy breach moved from a dramatic crisis to light entertainment in the space of a week. The news that the Education Ministry had misplaced a data drive packed with sensitive information about school kids was treated like an Amber Alert when the government ’fessed up to…
AU: Leaked documents: 31 ‘identified’ privacy breaches not too bad, says Department of Veterans Affairs
Ian McPhedran reports: The Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) has played down the extent of privacy breaches under departmental document leaks. However the scandal has deepened with more than a dozen veterans and advocates coming forward with examples of serious breaches since News Corp Australia last week revealed that personal documents including medical reports and compensation…
Nearly 50 Pak websites hacked in reply to hacking of Kerala govt website
Jisha Surya reports: On Sunday, state woke up to the news that the official website of Kerala government – www.kerala.gov.in – was hacked allegedly by Pakistani hackers. The website had an image of burning Indian flag and messages such as Pakistan Zindabad”, “We are Team Pak Cyber Attacker” and “Security is just an illusion”. But…
Ringleader of $24 Million Stolen Identity Tax Refund Fraud Ring Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison
There’s another follow-up to a case previously reported on PHIprivacy.net and more recently, on this site (here and here). A resident of Newnan, Georgia, was sentenced Friday to prison for her role as the ringleader of a $24 million stolen identity tax refund fraud (SIRF) conspiracy. The sentence was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of…