Whig reports: As many as 165 employees of the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System received a letter from the VA informing them of a potential breach of privacy. This includes an unknown number of Perry Point employees. On Aug. 28, the personal vehicle of a VA Maryland Health Care employee was broken into and…
Category: Government Sector
Hackers-for-hire raided 300 banks, corporates for TWELVE YEARS
Darren Pauli reports: A band of hackers for hire have raided some 300 banks, corporations and governments undetected for 12 years, possibly the longest campaign of its kind. The German hackers registered 800 front businesses in the UK to target and fully compromise organisations in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria at the request of customers. Elite…
(Another) WINZ privacy blunder
John Cousins and Fritha Tagg report: Confidential documents detailing the mental health conditions of beneficiaries were given to a woman in a major privacy blunder. Waihi resident Tracy Hall says the documents, which contain the names, phone numbers and mental health details of dozens of Work and Income clients, were given to her in error….
Mississippi woman sentenced for role in stolen identity fraud case
This may be related to another prosecution previously noted on this blog, even though this defendant was not listed as one of the co-conspirators in that case: Ciara Gooden, age 24, of Jackson, was sentenced this week to 30 months for conspiracy to defraud the United States. Gooden previously pled guilty to her role in…
UK: Isle of Scilly Council ordered to review procedures following data incidents
From the Information Commissioner’s Office: The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has ordered the Council of the Isle of Scilly to implement new data protection policies and training after two data breaches involving the disclosure of personal data. The first breach occurred in June 2013 when an attachment inadvertently included in an email revealed personal data…
Earthquake data privacy breach ‘avoidable’
Charles Anderson reports: A review of the Earthquake Commission’s handling of the privacy breach that revealed the details of all Canterbury claimants found the error could have been avoided. The breach might not have happened if EQC had learned lessons from a similar breach at another government agency, the review said. In early 2013, 83,000…