Benjamin Preiss reports that Ballarat Council was not the only council to have had their network compromised: Councils throughout western Victoria are counting the cost of a security breach to their online networks. The councils have undertaken security reviews and may conduct upgrades following illegal access to their systems. Yesterday it remained unclear how much…
Category: Government Sector
Disused hard drives strewn about at Oak Ridge, says IG
David Perera reports: Disused hard drives potentially carrying sensitive unclassified information have been scattered in unsecure locations within the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, says a new Energy Department inspector general report. The report, dated August 16 and based on work auditors conducted from January through April of this year, says the lab has lacked internal…
GA: Confidential files found in City Hall East sales items
Ernie Suggs reports: The Atlanta Police Department has launched an investigation into how documents containing sensitive material were left in furniture sold during a liquidation sale of merchandise at City Hall East. At least two people have reported that they found personnel documents among the items they purchased. The documents contained Social Security numbers, addresses…
Fine for Edinburgh data snooping policeman
A police officer who admitted snooping through the force computer and obtaining personal data about people has been fined £4,800. Pc Adrian Merron, 46, was due to stand trial on a total of 58 charges. But the Lothian and Borders officer admitted 10 charges and the Crown accepted not guilty pleas to the rest. Six…
AU: Hacker hits Ballarat City Council files
Benjamin Preiss reports: Ballarat City Council’s online network was in meltdown yesterday after it was discovered somebody had broken into the system. One source, who had specific details about the security scare, said a teenager from regional Victoria had gained access to the system. ”Essentially the level of access that’s available is complete and unrestricted…
Russian government email servers hacked
Evgeniya Chaykovskaya reports: On Monday it turned out that the Federal Service of Protection (FSO) is not that good at protecting its own privacy. Yesterday internet forums were bubbling with information about a hack into the FSO internal email system. The attack was aimed at an email server of one of the services’ departments, the…