Ouch. Tim Smith reports: A foreign hacker stole a vast database of the South Carolina Department of Revenue and investigators told GreenvilleOnline.com that 387,000 credit card numbers and 3.6 million Social Security numbers have been exposed. Read more on Greenville News. Update 1: The paper also has a later article on the review of state agencies’…
Category: Government Sector
Stoke-on-Trent City Council fined £120k after mis-sent email disclosed sensitive child data (update 2)
Public Service reports: Stoke-on-Trent City Council has been hit with a major fine after sensitive information on a child protection case was emailed to the wrong person, the Information Commissioner’s Office has confirmed. The ICO, which can fine up to £500,000 for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act, said the £120,000 fine issued to…
Scottish Borders Council appeals ICO’s fine
Scottish Borders Council has appealed the £250,000 fine imposed by the ICO following a data protection breach in which employees’ information was found unshredded in supermarket recycling bins. Southern Reporter reports that the ICO has until November 2 to respond to the appeal and the decision will be made by a three-judge panel.
ICO: Education ministry BROKE the Data Protection Act
Kelly Fiveash reports from the U.K.: The Department for Education broke the Data Protection Act after it exposed the email addresses, unencrypted passwords and sensitive answers of members of the public who filled in an online form about parental controls on the net, The Register can reveal. However – despite the breach – the Information Commissioner’s Office…
NZ: Ministry of Justice shuts down kiosks
In the aftermath of the WINZ breach, the NZ government has been reviewing all its systems. In the process, they discovered that the Ministry of Justice kiosks had a similar issue as the MSD Work and Income kiosks. The New Zealand Herald reports: The affected kiosks included three computers at the ministry’s national office, which…
Australia Post in online privacy breach (updated)
Natasha Bita reports: Another Australia Post computer glitch has exposed the names and locations of thousands of Australians who have been sent parcels. Australia Post was forced to shut down its electronic parcel tracking service yesterday, after an angry customer blew the whistle on the privacy and security breach. Customers who typed a random number…