Anand Balasar of the Legislative Gazette reports that an employee of the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance has been charged with using taxpayers’ information to apply for and obtain credit cards. The state is notifying 2,000 individuals. Note of June 20, 2009: the original article is no longer available at that url but a…
Category: Government Sector
Lost flash drive contains data on 5,500 Oklahoma employees
Jennifer Pierce of News6 reports that an employee of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission lost a flash drive with personal information, including Social Security numbers and payroll information, on 5,500 state employees. The employee had transferred the data to a flash drive after his laptop had become infected, and then lost the flash drive at…
Washington Department of Labor and Industries exposes contractors’ SSN on web site
In an article that requires a subscription for full access, Bert Caldwell of The Spokesman Review reports that the Washington Department of Labor and Industries web site was shut down for several hours yesterday after a contractor realized his Social Security number was exposed and contacted them. A spokesperson said that the problem was a…
EU leaders’ passport numbers and medical info found on public computer in Prague
The Helsinki Times reports that a publicly available computer at a Prague hotel contained the passport numbers and itineraries of about 200 leaders from EU member states who gathered there April 5 for an EU-US summit. The breach has been attributed to human error. The breach was discovered by a Finnish tourist who used the…
FL: Fired Hernando County deputy charged with identity theft over e-mails
Joel Anderson reports: The e-mails referred to one of the highest-ranking officers at the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office as “racist.” They alleged discriminatory treatment against some of the deputies. They were supposedly coming from Sgt. George Smith. However, the e-mails were all the work of an online thief, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Former Deputy…
(Follow-up) UK: ICO takes enforcement action against the British Council for serious data breach
As a follow-up to an incident reported in January: The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found the British Council in breach of the Data Protection Act after the loss of an unencrypted computer disc. Details lost include sensitive personal information relating to trade union membership of over 2,000 members of staff. The British Council reported…