If at first you don’t succeed, persist. And blog. Jon Baines writes: Imagine, if you will, a public authority which decides to publish as Open Data a spreadsheet of 6000 individual records of adults receiving social services support. Each row tells us an individual service user’s client group (e.g. “dementia” or “learning disability”), age range (18-64, 65-84, 84 and over),…
Category: Government Sector
GA: Brooklet officer fired after security, identity breach
Holli Deal Saxon reports: A former Brooklet police officer fired for sharing information about candidates for the town’s police chief position said he was terminated unfairly and improperly, but the Brooklet city councilman who supervises the police department says the officer was fired for breaking privacy laws. Former police Sgt. Jonathan McGahee was terminated Dec….
MA: Middlesex Asst. DA Charged With Leaking Confidential Info in Exchange for Drugs
Chris Caesar reports: A former Middlesex Assistant District Attorney was indicted Thursday on charges he accepted bribes and illegally slipped confidential information from his office to a drug dealer in exchange for painkillers. Stephen Gilpatric, 35, of Somerville allegedly leaked sensitive records—including a Board of Probation record, police report, photograph and other identifying information—about another…
NOAA Employee Charged With Computer Breach Met Senior Chinese Official in Beijing
Bill Gertz reports: A federal weather service employee charged with stealing sensitive infrastructure data from an Army Corps of Engineers database met a Chinese government official in Beijing, according to court documents that reveal the case to be part of an FBI probe of Chinese economic espionage. Xiafen “Sherry” Chen, an employee of the National Oceanic…
UK: Security breaches over Christmas on police’s website
The Eastbourne Herald reports: Sussex Police is investigating security breaches of its external website over the Christmas period. Three breaches have been identified within a contained area of the website and could possibly be linked. Amaraghosha Carter, the joint head of IT for Surrey and Sussex police forces, said, “A full investigation is underway to…
NZ: More Corrections staff caught file-spying
Tom Hunt reports: They guard those who have got themselves into trouble – but nosey Department of Corrections staff aren’t too good at keeping out of it themselves. In a single year, 18 Corrections staff were caught snooping on offenders’ records, among 29 cases of staff being reprimanded for unacceptable use of work computers. Read…