Henry McDonald reports: Royal Navy investigators flew to Belfast last week after a memory stick containing “restricted” information on naval manoeuvres and personnel around the UK was reported missing. The Observer has learnt that two senior detectives from the Royal Navy Police’s Special Investigation Branch met members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland to…
Category: Government Sector
UK: Laptop Theft Debated by Councillors
A four-day lapse between council staff realising a laptop containing nearly 15,000 postal voter details was missing and reporting it to police was called into question last week. A preliminary report containing the chronology of events surrounding the theft of the laptop – which contained names, addresses, dates of birth and signatures – was put…
Navy Finds Lessons In Stolen Laptops, Storage Drives
J. Nicholas Hoover reports: The Navy received a report earlier this year of what appeared to be a serious cyber attack. The breach turned out to be less damaging than feared, but the incident served as a reminder that external storage drives shouldn’t be overlooked as a security risk, even though USB thumb devices got…
OR: State mistake puts personal data at risk
Alan Gustafson reports: Sloppy handling of confidential records by a state agency in Salem left people’s names, Social Security numbers, ages and addresses exposed in an open recycling bin outdoors. The blunder by the Housing and Community Services agency put low-income, elderly and disabled residents at risk of becoming targets of identity theft or other…
Stolen laptop held birth data on all Belizeans
I supposed it was inevitable. A country’s entire population has had their birth certificate information stolen — and yes, because a laptop was left in an employee’s car. Channel 5 in Belize reports: Police are investigating the theft of a laptop that they fear could result in cases of identity theft. That’s because the stolen…
NH: Mayor’s e-mail used for 650,000 messages
Manchester – An estimated 650,000 of Mayor Frank Guinta’s closest friends received messages sent from his city e-mail account Wednesday night and early Thanksgiving Day. Well, maybe not his friends. Someone hacked the mayor’s City Hall account and used it to send the 650,000 messages. Guinta yesterday said he found out about the messaging on…