Daniel Bitonti reports: A portable computer hard drive containing the personal information of more than 500,000 student loan recipients was left unsecured for extended periods of time by government employees and was not protected by a password or encryption, Canada’s top privacy watchdog says. In a report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, interim federal privacy…
Category: Government Sector
GAO: VA Needs to Address Long-Standing Challenges
Highlights from the GAO Report, “INFORMATION SECURITY: VA Needs to Address Long-Standing Challenges (GAO-14-469T): The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) continues to face long-standing challenges in effectively implementing its information security program. Specifically, from fiscal year 2007 through 2013, VA has consistently had weaknesses in key information security control areas (see table). Control Weaknesses for…
California DMV finds no evidence of any computer system breach (update 1)
Associated Press reports: The California Department of Motor Vehicles said Saturday there is no evidence of a computer breach that could affect credit-card users, but it’s launching an investigation “out of an abundance of caution.” DMV spokesman Armando Botello said the agency was alerted by law enforcement to a potential security breach within its online…
Data breach involving card payment data at California Department of Motor Vehicles – Krebs (update 3)
Brian Krebs reports that what’s already been a bad month for California residents in terms of data breaches just got worse: The California Department of Motor Vehicles appears to have suffered a wide-ranging credit card data breach involving online payments for DMV-related services, according to banks in California and elsewhere that received alerts this week about compromised cards…
Wherever you look, there’s misuse of access to databases, Saturday edition
No matter what sector, no matter what country, there are employees who can’t seem to resist misusing their access to databases for snooping or personal reasons. Today’s example involves the Gardai in Ireland: Confidential information on six “high-profile” personalities on the Garda Pulse computer system was accessed “inappropriately” by members of the force. The multiple…
GA: Dozens of Watershed Management Employees’ Identity Stolen for Tax Refund Fraud
Ross McLaughlin reports: 11Alive’s Center for Investigative Action has uncovered a very suspicious case of identity theft involving several employees in Atlanta’s Watershed Management. It raises a lot of cases about a possible data breach. There’s no evidence yet to suggest the breach occurred within the city, but it’s suspect, considering that so many employees…