Jill R. Aitoro reports: Most malware attacks against federal agencies are financially motivated, seeking to trick computer users into buying fake security software or providing personal information that can be used to hack into their bank accounts. Although espionage and terrorism often are considered the primary motivations for breaking into government networks, 90 percent of…
Category: Government Sector
Ca: Province responding to privacy breach
The provincial government is responding to another privacy breach. The personal information of 78 people was included in error in written correspondence mailed to another person. The breach involved applicants to the province’s Heating Oil Storage Tank Replacement Assistance Program. The information collected from applicants for this program includes their name, spouse’s name, Social Insurance…
Online data breaches plague Metro Nashville
Nate Rau reports: Metro government continues to mistakenly release the sensitive personal information of residents nearly three years after the Social Security numbers of 330,000 Nashville voters were put at risk. Five separate incidents across various city government offices since then have exposed Nashvillians to potential identity theft. The most recent mistake, which involved the…
DWP plugs up electronic data leaks
Kable reports: The Department for Work and Pensions has reported data leaks from paper but none from electronic devices over the year. Its resources accounts (PDF) for 2009-10 reveal that in April 2009 it lost paper documents from its offices which contained the names, dates of birth, national insurance numbers and bank details of 145…
Laptop stolen from PCC employee’s car contained SSN of 2,900 unemployed Oregonians
A car owned by an employee of Portland Community College was broken into on Thursday, Aug 5. Among the stolen items was a data-storage device containing the names and Social Security numbers of an estimated 2,900 Multnomah County participants in the Oregon Food Stamp Employment Transition Program, also known as OFSET. The employee had been…
VA Data Breaches Go Live
Bob Brewin alerts us to another new resource on data breaches: Today the Veterans Affairs Department started posting online its monthly data breach reports as part of its ongoing transparency thing, VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker told a press briefing this morning. He said the latest report (for July) might not make it to…