Bob Brewin reports: The Veterans Affairs Department’s inspector general has launched a criminal investigation into a physician assistant’s alleged downloading of veterans’ clinical data at its Atlanta medical center, sources have told Nextgov. The assistant allegedly recorded two sets of patient data on to a personal laptop for research purposes. One set included three years’…
Category: Government Sector
Local govt computers at risk in Japan
Computer servers operated by a number of local governments are vulnerable to cyber-attacks, with some local entities failing to take countermeasures, according to an internal document of a government-affiliated organization. The Local Authorities Systems Development Center document showed that servers managed by at least 193 local entities, which include prefectural and municipal governments and possibly…
Cybersecurity: Progress Made but Challenges Remain in Defining and Coordinating the Comprehensive National Initiative
Cybersecurity: Progress Made but Challenges Remain in Defining and Coordinating the Comprehensive National Initiative GAO-10-338 March 5, 2010 Highlights Page (PDF) Full Report (PDF, 64 pages) Recommendations (HTML) Summary: In response to the ongoing threats to federal systems and operations posed by cyber attacks, President Bush established the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI) in…
CyTA employee and former policeman arrested in data theft
On February 24, an employee of the of the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA) and a private detective were arrested in connection with investigations into the illegal passing on of telecommunication personal data to a third party. As reported by Stefanos Evripidou: The information included incoming and outgoing calls and text messages for certain CyTA clients….
2 state web sites hacked in Hawaii
Sean Hao reports: The state has temporarily taken down two procurement-related Web sites following a security breach that exposed the user names and passwords of hundreds of state and county employees. State Comptroller Russ Saito said the Web sites were hacked earlier this week by someone in Romania. No financial information was compromised and it…
DoD to reduce use of Social Security numbers
Rick Maze reports: The Defense Department is preparing to launch a militarywide effort to reduce the use of Social Security numbers to lower the chances of identity theft for military and civilian workers and contractors. But the announcement, included in the March 3 Federal Register, makes clear that stopping the use of Social Security numbers…