AFP reports: The personal data of thousands of U.S. government workers was not compromised in a recently reported cyber attack, officials said Thursday amid fresh allegations that Chinese hackers accessed computers housing employee information. The Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Homeland Security took steps to mitigate the possible breach as soon as…
Category: Government Sector
FL: Former corrections officer pleads guilty to wire fraud, identity theft
TBO has an update on a breach previously reported on this blog: A state corrections officer accused of using inmates’ identities to file fraudulent tax returns pleaded guilty Wednesday to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Jerry St. Fleur, 26, of Zephyrhills, faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s…
SingPass breach: time for government agencies to take security more seriously
Alfred Siew reports: Perhaps the worst thing that can happen after the recent SingPass security breach is to assume it cannot happen again. This idea that everything is working fine is foolhardy, after news last week that three of the 1,560 compromised SingPass accounts were used to apply for work permits. Thus it’s disappointing to hear the government saying there are no…
MS: Police reports with sensitive information end up in dumpster
WAPT reports that after receiving a tip from a viewer, reporter Stephanie Maxwell went dumpster diving and turned up trash bags full of Jackson Police Department reports containing loads of personal information. The bags were in a dumpster outside Precinct 4. JPD responded that someone didn’t follow procedure and would be retrained. But had this…
BBC’s Panorama team loses confidential information relating to a secret British Army unit
Ian Burrell reports: Highly sensitive and confidential information relating to a secret British Army unit which is alleged to have shot unarmed civilians in Northern Ireland has been “lost” by the BBC’s investigative team on the Panorama programme. The material, which includes information on former soldiers from the controversial Military Reaction Force, leaked out following…
DK: 900,000 residents’ social security numbers leaked (updated)
This is going to be a bit shaky, as it’s based on Google translator, but George Bendsen seems to be reporting that the Social Security Office of Economic Affairs and the Interior Ministry accidentally exposed 900,000 Danish citizens’ Social Security numbers. It happened in the “Robinson list,” a list of Danes who do not want direct mail…