Phil Muncaster reports: Hacktivist group Anonymous is claiming responsibility for an attack on the computer systems of the Syrian government and its evil overlord Bashar Assad thanks to which over two million emails ended up in the hands of whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks. As of last Thursday, the site began drip-feeding sections of the ‘Syria Files’…
Category: Non-U.S.
AU: Did Stay Smart Online’s contractor lose your data?
Oops. A follower on Twitter DM’d me a link to this breach notification from Stay Smart Online, an initiative of the AU government: Notification of Subscriber Data Loss Dear Subscriber We are writing to notify you that the Department has been advised by a former external contractor that a DVD which included information provided by…
EU wants breach notification for certificate authorities
Stewart Mitchell reports: European authorities plan to clamp down on certificate authorities, demanding security signing organisations speak up if hit by hackers. Certificate authorities – either private or government backed – issue digital certificates that verify web pages and code, and are a key component of the web running smoothly and securely. But as last…
UK: Welcome Financial Services Limited Fined £150,000 After Backup Tapes With Customer Contact Info Lost
From the Information Commissioner’s Office: Organisations are learning the hard way of the consequences of mishandling people’s information – and others need to heed the lessons the Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, warned today at the launch of the ICO’s 2011/12 annual report. The Commissioner’s comments came as the ICO imposed a civil monetary penalty (CMP) of…
BC Hydro asks customers to check bills after online security breach
Michael Mui reports: BC Hydro is asking its online credit-card customers to check their bills after a security breach was detected last week. Corporation spokeswoman Jennifer Young said the breach — which involved credit card information not being properly encrypted — has been corrected, but urges those who paid online with a credit card in…
Dutch employment agency applicant data allegedly leaked following extortion attempt
@quentynblog kindly pointed me to what appears to be yet another extortion attempt that resulted in a data leak when the breached entity wouldn’t pay: From the hackers’ post: Dear friends (and enemies), Last week, we hacked into the Web server of Accord.nl, a Dutch temporary employment company, downloading thousands of job applicant records. We…