A few days ago, I received an inquiry from someone who had logged into her USPS online store account, only to see another customer’s name, address, and last four digits of their credit card number. Understandably concerned, she contacted customer service who told her that it was a “known error” and that letters would be…
Category: Government Sector
NJ: Rogue SSA employee provided Social Security Numbers for a bank fraud scheme
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…
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…