AFP reports: France’s highest appeals court has ruled that authorities may not use a list of 3,000 people suspected of tax evasion as a basis to conduct searches due to its illicit origin. French authorities in January 2009 acted on a Swiss warrant and seized data about global banking giant HSBC’s customers from former computer…
Category: Non-U.S.
AU: Privacy Commissioner probes Fairfax hack (updated)
Darren Pauli reports: The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has opened an investigation into the breach of two Fairfax microsites to probe whether sufficient security mechanisms were in place during the attacks. […] Fairfax confirmed that two of its microsites were hacked but said up to 10,000 unencrypted credit card details compromised in the same attack…
UK: £140,000 fine for Midlothian Council after sending child data to wrong people five times in as many months (updated)
A Scottish council has been fined £140,000 after repeatedly releasing sensitive information about vulnerable children and carers to the wrong people. Midlothian Council was guilty of five data protection breaches in as many months last year. It is the first local authority in Scotland to be fined by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which is…
Update: Victoria university’s hard drives found with thieves’ note
Some of the computer devices stolen from the University of Victoria earlier this month have been recovered, along with a repentant note from the thieves that police are finding hard to believe. A postal worker found the hard drives and other computer devices in a green garbage bag stuffed in a mailbox in the nearby…
Euronet faces first criminal computer breach of secure payment data
Alyson Raletz reports: Euronet Worldwide Inc., a Leawood company that provides secure payment services, has reported a criminal computer security breach. Euronet (Nasdaq: EEFT) said the breach targeted a “small portion” of its European business in late 2011, according a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Read more on Kansas City Business Journal.
Follow-up: Chartered Institute of Public Relations signs undertaking after membership applications lost on train
As a follow-up to a breach reported previously on this blog, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations has signed an undertaking with the Information Commissioner’s Office. From the undertaking: In May 2011, the Information Commissioner (the “Commissioner”) became aware of an incident involving the loss of up to 30 CIPR membership application forms. A member…