James Illingworth reports: An investigation has been launched after a Wigan resident was sent confidential tax documents due to a civil service mix-up. Barron Roberts raised the alarm after receiving the bundle containing a dozen forms with personal information relating to borough households through the post this week. Read more on Wigan Today. The Department for…
Category: Government Sector
UK: Home Office didn’t notify ICO about dozens of breaches last year
Alexander J. Martin reports that the Home Office had 33 data breaches during the last financial year, but did not report any of them to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The incidents were disclosed in the department’s annual report and accounts 2014-15 (PDF). There’s nothing illegal about the failure to notify the ICO, however. Martin reports: The number…
AU: Defense medical records sent to China in security breach
David Wroe reports: Eye test records and personal contact details of hundreds of military personnel including soldiers posted overseas were sent to China in a significant data security breach, Fairfax Media has learnt. The records, which included in many cases mobile phone numbers of personnel, were sent to a processing facility in China’s Guangdong province…
In: BSNL site hacked
R. Dinakaran reports: BSNL’s Telecommunications Journal website has been hacked by AnonOpsIndia. The ‘Anonymous’ group that describes itself as “#OpIndia | Expect Us! ~ Anonymous #Hacktivists” in its Twitter handle, has added one more page to the journal website – http://tj.bsnl.co.in/tjeditions/NOV14/anonops.html – listing its demands to the Central Government. The group has posted a message on…
Poor security at Japan Pension Service preceded cyber-attack / Most leaked files not protected by passwords
Yomiuri Shimbun reports: An investigation into the recent unauthorized access of personal information from the Japan Pension Service found that 99 percent of the files accessed were not protected by passwords, sources said. This contrasts with multiple reports issued since 2013 by all JPS offices nationwide claiming full compliance on password rules. If the files…
Yet more attacks on Canadian government servers
Waqas reports more attacks on Canadian government sites, allegedly in retaliation for the anti-terrorism bill, C-51. The latest targets were rqap.gouv.qc.ca, mess.gouv.qc.ca, and cneae.gouv.qc.ca/ : On Thursday morning, the Anonymous hacktivist group conducted a massive cyber attack on Canadian government servers and breached into the Québec Parental Insurance Plan Centre, The Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Solidarity (MTESS) and…