Another insider breach involving the Social Security Administration has come to light. In a federal court in New Jersey this week, Syed Rehman, 44, of Jersey City, admitted his role in a bank fraud scheme in which he used unlawfully obtained Social Security numbers to obtain credit cards and mortgages, causing four banks to lose…
Category: Government Sector
Pension leak may dig into Russians’ pockets
Personal client data from the Russian Pension Fund has leaked onto the Internet. The Fund’s website published the full names and insurance and savings-account values of some of its clients. The information was removed within an hour of the leak, but it remained online in cached form, and could be accessed via a search on…
Fr: Activists hack ruling party’s phone numbers
Odd… I didn’t come across this one via my usual resources and am having trouble tracking it down, but media are reporting it, so: Hackers have published personal details including phone numbers of senior members of right-wing French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling party, claiming the action on behalf of all the party’s “victims”. The UMP…
Anti-government feeling inspires dump of employees’ usernames and passwords
Oops. Drafted this yesterday, but never posted it. I’m old, I forget… Hex00010 of TeaMp0isoN dumped a bunch of foreign government employees’ usernames, e-mail addresses, and passwords on Pastebin. The passwords for Australian legislators and officials are in clear-text; those for other countries or organizations may be encrypted or decrypted, variously. Checking them out, I…
Ca: Nearly 2,700 tax files downloaded on missing laptop
I’m no longer surprised when we first learn about breaches that happened years ago. Case in point: a 2006 breach in Canada is now in the media after the Canadian Press uncovered it in an Access to Information request: The confidential tax files of almost 2,700 Canadians are missing after a Canada Revenue Agency worker…
UK: Vince Cable apologises over binned letters
Rajeev Syal reports: Vince Cable has been forced to apologise publicly for the second time in three weeks after confidential documents were discovered in bins outside his constituency office. The unshredded paperwork, which contained letters from ministers, was found dumped outside the business secretary’s Twickenham office. Personal details of constituents were also found in transparent…