David Ionescu reports: Lincolnshire County Council is apologising after a ‘data breach’ which led to the names and email addresses of more than 4,000 people being sent to some 250 email addresses. The incident happened on August 6 when 250 people received an email regarding changes to the County Council’s jobs site, to which the…
Category: Government Sector
Federal police mistakenly publish metadata from criminal investigations
Paul Farrell reports: The Australian federal police mistakenly published highly sensitive information – including metadata – connected to criminal investigations, in a serious breach of operational security. Guardian Australia can reveal that the AFP provided documents to the Senate, which were then made publicly available online on parliamentary sites and other sources for several years,…
MD: Ride On officials investigate potential passenger privacy breach
Kevin Wilson reports on some great advocacy efforts by a parent: Is Montgomery County safely storing your child’s confidential information? A local mother says, “No.” Bethesda resident Kathy Gambrell became troubled while signing up her 12-year-old son, Dakota, for a discounted bus card. The pass, called the Youth Cruiser SmarTripcard, provides unlimited Ride On bus service to…
Intelligence Gap: How a Chinese National Gained Access to Arizona’s Terror Center
Andrew Becker, CIR and Ryan Gabrielson, ProPublica report: LIZHONG FAN’S DESK WAS AMONG A CROWD of cubicles at the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center in Phoenix. For five months in 2007, the Chinese national and computer programmer opened his laptop and enjoyed access to a wide range of sensitive information, including the Arizona driver’s license…
UK: Hammersmith and Fulham policewoman fired after breaching police data act
Graham Spence reports on another case of police misuse of databases: Trainee Detective Constable Sadaf Bhatti, 39 , a former Metropolitan Police Service officer based at Hammersmith and Fulham has been dismissed without notice. Bhatti had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of breaching the Data Protection Act at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, 5…
SG: Alleged ‘Messiah’ hacker faces 105 more charges
Olivia Siong reports: Alleged “Messiah” hacker James Raj Arokiasamy was handed an additional 105 charges in court on Monday (Aug 25). This includes charges for securing unauthorised access into the Fuji Xerox webserver between Mar 1 and 24 last year. He is also accused of hacking into and making unauthorised modifications to a fan site…