Taylor Telford reports: Somewhere in Western Australia, a government IT employee is probably laughing or crying or pulling their hair out, or maybe all of the above. A security audit of the Western Australian government released this week by the state’s auditor general found that 26 percent of its officials had weak, common passwords —…
Category: Non-U.S.
37,000 Eir customers face data breach in laptop theft
Adrian Weckler reports: Some 37,000 Eir customers have been hit by a security breach after a staff laptop was stolen. The telecoms firm said that the breach happened when an unencrypted device was stolen outside an office at the weekend. Customer data exposed included names, email addresses, phone numbers and Eir account numbers. However, Eir…
AU: Melbourne student health records posted online in ‘appalling’ privacy breach
The Australian Associated Press reports: The personal records of hundreds of Melbourne high school students have been mistakenly published, sparking an investigation into an “appalling” privacy breach. The Victoria education minister, James Merlino, said his department would launch an inquiry into the breach at Strathmore secondary college in the city’s north-west. Read more on The…
Canadian Telcos Patch Vulnerability in TRS Systems
Catalin Cimpanu reports on a vulnerability first reported by Project Insecurity researchers: All major Canadian internet service providers (ISPs) have patched a vulnerability this week in their telecommunications relay services (TRSs). TRS systems, or IP-relays, are telco-provided services that allow people with disabilities —such as deafness or speech disorders— to place calls to standard telephone…
UK: Superdrug hack: Data thieves claim to have information on 20,000 customers
Jon Sharman reports: Superdrug has been targeted by hackers claiming they had access to tens of thousands of customers’ personal details including dates of birth and phone numbers. The high street chain it had been contacted by someone who claimed that they had obtained the details of approximately 20,000 customers. The company confirmed that 386 of the…
AU:Sexual assault victim’s medical records given to wrong person
Another small-N breach with huge consequences. Chris O’Keefe reports: Ryde Hospital is at the centre of a gross breach of privacy, after the medical records of a sexual assault victim were mistakenly handed to another patient. A young woman was discharged from the hospital in Sydney’s North last week after presenting with a stomach bug….