Rick Karlin reports: The supervisor of a cluster of Long Island group homes for the disabled is charged with stealing the identity of a client. Blossom Officer Thame is charged with using a client’s name to open a PSE&G electricity account. She is a treatment team leader for the State Office of People with Developmental…
Category: Government Sector
Spies Warned Feds About OPM Mega-Hack Danger
Shane Harris reports: Five years ago, U.S. officials refused to merge a database containing classified personnel records of intelligence agency employees with another run by the Office of Personnel Management, fearing that if the two systems were linked up, it could expose the personal information of covert operatives to leakers and hackers. Those concerns look…
Ca: CSIS website crashed by hacker yet again
Emily Campbell reports: For the second time in less than 2 weeks, the CSIS website has been brought to it’s (sic) knees by a cyber attack. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s website along with multiple other Canadian government websites were taken down 12 days ago. Internet vigilante group Anonymous took credit for those earlier attacks….
UK: Merseyside PC appears in court on computer snooping charges
John Siddle reports: A Merseyside PC accused of snooping on the force’s computer systems is to stand trial. PC Paula Humphreys, 43, was suspended from duty after being charged in May with Data Protection Act offences. Humphreys, of Glentrees Road, West Derby, is accused of “knowingly or recklessly” obtaining personal data on four occasions. Read more…
AFGE files Class Action Lawsuit against OPM Officials over Data Breach
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has filed a class action complaint with a demand for jury trial against the Office of Personnel Management, Director Katherine Archuleta and Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour about one of the most devastating cyberattacks in U.S. history that resulted in potentially 18 million current and former federal employees’ personal and security files being compromised….
OPM Temporarily Shuts Down Personnel Information Database as Protective Step
AP reports: The federal personnel agency whose records were plundered by hackers linked to China announced on Monday the temporary shutdown of a massive database used to update and store background investigation records after newly discovering a flaw that left the system vulnerable to additional breaches. There is no evidence the vulnerability has been exploited…