Liz F. Kay reports that the Maryland Department of Human Resources employee who posted the Social Security numbers of almost 3,000 state residents has been fired: “As of today, the employee is no longer employed with the state,” said Nancy Lineman, DHR spokeswoman. She declined to comment further about the employee, stating that this was…
Category: Government Sector
Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Database Potentially Compromised
From the agency’s web site, dated today: A computer and protective case has been stolen from a locked state vehicle of an Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship employee. This theft has placed at risk the personal information of Iowans that are participating in the Department’s Horse and Dog Breeding Program. Through this program…
Colorado agency notifies 105,470 clients of stolen hard drive
The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing is notifying 105,470 clients receiving state-provided health insurance that a stolen hard drive contained some of their personal information. A statement on the agency’s web site does not provide much detail and simply says: State officials discovered that there was an unauthorized removal of a computer…
UK: MoD loses a staggering 340 laptop computers in TWO YEARS…and most of them were not encrypted
The Ministry of Defence has lost or had stolen 340 laptops worth more than £600,000 in the last two years, figures reveal today. A total of 593 CDs, DVDs and floppy disks, 215 USB memory sticks, 96 removable hard disk drives and 13 mobile phones have also disappeared from the department since the release of…
Gambling site glitch leads to privacy breach for some users of online B.C. casino
The Canadian Press reports that the B.C. Lottery Corporation denies that there was any hacking involved in a breach that allowed some online gamblers access to others’ information: The Crown corporation added casino-style games such as blackjack and poker to its PlayNow.com site last week, and the service soon crashed as users choked the company’s…
NDP: B.C.’s new online gambling website may have been hacked (updated)
Vivian Luk reports: British Columbians’ personal information may have been compromised when the government’s online gambling website, PlayNow.com, crashed last week, according to the New Democratic Party. PlayNow, the first government-sanctioned online casino in North America, was shut down only hours after it was launched last Thursday. The B.C Lottery Corp. said unexpectedly high traffic…