The Information Commissioner today served two organizations with the first monetary penalties for what he characterized as serious breaches of the Data Protection Act. The first penalty, of £100,000, was issued to Hertfordshire County Council for two serious incidents where council employees faxed highly sensitive personal information to the wrong recipients. The first case, involving…
Category: Non-U.S.
Ca: Laptop theft could be massive file breach
The local public school board is scrambling to alert some students and their parents whose records and personal information are reportedly on a stolen laptop computer. Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board communications officer Kerry Donnell outlined, in a statement released to the press Tuesday, the steps being taken to alert those who may…
(update) British teenager faces jail for selling details of thousands of U.S. bank accounts in $19m internet scam
More coverage of the Nick Webber/GhostMarket.net case, mentioned previously on this site. Webber reportedly admitted in court today to masterminding the sale of 65,000 bank details. … Webber, who is the son of former Guernsey politician Tony Webber, was caught with details of 100,000 credit cards on his laptop – representing a potential loss to…
AU: Police hacker avoids jail
Nicole Cox reports: A disgruntled computer hacker who attempted to bring down the entire WA Police computer system by flooding the Police Commissioner’s inbox with thousands of emails has walked free from court with a suspended sentence. On Friday, the Perth District Court heard that Adam William Bogers, 25, mounted the bizarre virtual attack in…
Ca: Skimmer hidden in gas pump a first in Alberta?
Some interesting statistics from a news story by Jason Van Rasse about how a skimmer that was found inside a gas pump was the first incident of its kind in Alberta: The Canadian Bankers Association said credit card fraud in Canada totalled $358 million last year — with counterfeit cards accounting for almost half that…
UK: Council loses personal details of children in care
Stoke-on-Trent City Council has undertaken to improve the security of personal data held on portable media devices following the loss of a USB memory stick containing sensitive personal information of 40 children in their care, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said today. The ICO was made aware of this breach of the Data Protection Act…