Julie Hayes reports: North Yorkshire police officers and staff breached data protection laws 39 times in the past three years, the force has revealed. In response to a Freedom of Information request, North Yorkshire Police said the incidents included officers and staff conducting checks of private telephone numbers, obtaining personal data without consent, accessing personal…
Category: Government Sector
Sensitive Scottish court records discovered at recycling bank
A press release from the UK ICO: The Scottish Court Service breached the Data Protection Act by failing to take sufficient steps to prevent court documents containing sensitive personal details being accidentally disposed of at a local recycling bank in Glasgow, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said today. The ICO was first made aware of…
(update) NYC SSA breach involved more than SSN
As an update to the breach involving a subcontractor working in the NYC Social Security Administration Office of Temporary Disability Assistance, other news sources such as WTEN report the name of the individual arrested in the case: Evan Kane of Waterford, New York. It also appears that in addition to 15,000 Social Security Numbers, other…
Court: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act violated even if no financial motive or gain
Back in August 2009, I noted the conviction of a former SSA employee, Roberto Rodriguez. At the time, I reported: Roberto Rodriguez, 54, formerly of Fort Lauderdale, FL, was convicted by a jury on July 29, 2009 of seventeen counts of exceeding his authorized access to a government computer. Rodriguez is scheduled to be sentenced…
Computer equipment stolen from Dallas Police squad cars
I’m having one of those Yogi Berra “deja vu all over again” moments while reading this news report by Jon Nielsen in the Dallas Morning News: About $66,000 worth of computer equipment has been stolen from 10 decommissioned Dallas police squad cars, authorities said Thursday. The cars, all damaged in accidents, had been in the wrecking…
(follow-up) Ca: Defence confirms breach of medical information of Forces personnel
Alison Auld of The Canadian Press provides an update to a breach previously mentioned on this blog: Defence officials are reviewing the medical records of several Forces personnel after an investigation showed their personal health information was mistakenly placed in a veteran’s military medical file. Maj. Cindy Tessier said the file belonging to navy veteran Wayne…