Brian Collister reports that the personal information of approximately 16,000 former and current Harris County employees was found in two electronic files in Vietnam. The information included names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth. One of the files was from 2005 and another was from 2007, both before the county changed its system to…
Category: Government Sector
Oops. Japanese Government Shares Internal E-Mails on Google
Akiko Fujita reports: You may want to think twice the next time you skip over those privacy settings online. Government ministries in Japan are playing damage control after accidentally leaking internal emails on Google Groups, unaware that the site’s default settings would make their private conversations public. A spokesman with the Ministry of Environment tells…
California Dept. of Consumer Affairs has a breach, but doesn’t notify those affected for 6 months?
Ouch. The California Department of Consumer Affairs – Bureau of Automotive Repair (“BAR”) learned that a service provider had a network intrusion breach that gave someone access to bank account numbers and bank routing numbers belonging to the Smog Check stations licensed by the BAR. The breach reportedly occurred between May 2012 and March 2013,…
Statement of Public.Resource.Org on IRS web exposure of tens of thousands of SSNs
From their web site: Public.Resource.Org has discovered that the Internal Revenue Service has posted the Social Security Numbers of tens of thousands of Americans on government web sites. The database in question contains the filings of Section 527 political organizations such as campaign committees. This Section 527 database is an essential tool used by journalists, watchdog groups, congressional staffers,…
UK: Fury as confidential documents found blowing in the wind in Hatfield
Paul Christian reports additional details on a breach mentioned previously on this blog: Confidential documents were found blowing in the wind in Hatfield in “an alarming discovery” by a councillor. The papers, believed to have come from the former county supplies depot in Mount Pleasant Lane, included an employee appraisal form which featured a worker’s…
Confidential Hertfordshire County Council papers ‘found in street’
From BBC: A council has apologised after papers holding personal staff details were found discarded in a street. Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Zukowskyj said he saw Hertfordshire County Council documents outside a former adult care office in Hatfield. Derrick Ashley, cabinet member for resources, said the council apologised and would investigate how it happened. Mr…