Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines report: The B.C. government has fired a second employee in connection with a security breach in which the files of 1,400 income assistance clients turned up in a government worker’s home. Citizens’ Services Minister Ben Stewart confirmed today that the second employee was “involved with” the Public Service Agency within…
Category: Government Sector
Ca: Province waited 7 months to notify public of sensitive security breach
Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines report: The British Columbia government knew seven months ago about a serious security breach involving sensitive personal information from 1,400 income-assistance clients, yet only notified the affected people last week, the Victoria Times Colonist has learned. RCMP officers found the missing documents inside the Victoria home of a government worker…
GAO: DoD loses track of 72,000 combat records
Judi Hasson reports: There are so many data breaches throughout government these days that it’s getting tiresome. The question is why do they keep happening? Last week, the Government Accountability Office disclosed another one–this time from the Defense Department. The GAO revealed that DoD could not account for more than 72,000 health questionnaires that were…
SC: Social Security, county bank account numbers accidentally made public
Copies of a report into past Anderson County finances, released to the public last week, contained Social Security numbers for two people, business tax identification numbers for two companies and three active county bank account numbers. The nearly 1,000-page report is still available for viewing at the historic courthouse in downtown Anderson but the sensitive…
Ca: Hacker put farmers’ records at risk
Bill Curry reports: An amateur hacker attacked two government servers at Agriculture Canada, putting at risk about 60,000 personal-data records of Canadian farmers, according to the Privacy Commissioner’s annual report. The report lists various privacy breaches that came to the Commissioner’s attention over the past year, but Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said she was at a…
Follow-up: B.C. privacy czar to probe files breach
Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines report: B.C.’s privacy commissioner has launched his own investigation into how sensitive information from 1,400 income-assistance clients ended up at the home of a government employee. Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis said he has tough questions for the provincial government, including how the employee, a government case worker, was…