Oliver Laughland provides the update: The Department of Immigration is writing to asylum seekers detained across Australia to inform them their personal details were publicly disclosed in a massive data breach, with sources alleging the department is coercing them to sign for receipt of the letter. In February Guardian Australia revealed almost 10,000 asylum seekers had…
Category: Government Sector
NYC transit agency has data breach
AP reports: The personal information of approximately 15,000 New York City Transit Authority workers has been found on a compact disc inside a refurbished computer sold by a retailer. Authorities are investigating how the CD found its way into the computer drive. Read more on My San Antonio.
UK: Thames Valley police face fine for officers’ £800-a-head claims scam
Steven Morris provides another update to a breach previously covered on this blog: A police force faces a fine from the information commissioner and compensation claims from thousands of motorists after an officer stole accident victims’ details from a police computer and sold them on to personal injury solicitors. Sugra Hanif, a constable with Thames Valley police, was jailed…
ZA: E-toll site not hacked, claims Sanral
John Tullet reports: The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has denied it suffered a widely-reported breach, or leaked any personal information. E-mails from Sanral have made this claim in the wake of multiple breaches of its user data, and repeated calls for the agency to alert its customers that their data may have been compromised. Read more on ITWeb,…
Asylum seeker claims she was told to sign waiver after data breach
Paul Farrell reports: A Chinese asylum seeker at Villawood detention centre says an immigration department officer threatened to force her on to a plane for deportation if she did not sign a document waiving the department’s responsibility for harm she may suffer if she was returned to China after a massive data breach. Read more…
AU: Asylum seeker data breach triggers court battles
Breaches have consequences. Bianca Hall reports further developments in a breach previously noted on this blog: The federal government will be forced to simultaneously fight dozens of court appeals later this month following a privacy breach, with about 40 asylum seekers preparing to launch appeals against their deportation in the Federal Circuit Court. The asylum…