In February, we learned of a horrific privacy breach involving almost 10,000 asylum seekers. This breach is on my personal Top 10 Worst Breaches of 2014 because of the risk of harm to those exposed. A detention file created by Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) accidentally exposed detainees’ personal details and was subsequently downloaded in about 16…
Category: Of Note
In: Massive data breach at CIDCO’s website
Yogesh Sadhwani reports: The personal records of about 85,000 applicants to the City and Industrial Development Corporation‘s (CIDCO) housing scheme have inadvertently been made public by the government establishment. Details such as residential address, mobile number, Permanent Account Number (PAN), bank account number, Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) information related to their bank accounts and…
U.S. Postal Service Says It Was Victim of Data Breach (update3)
Laura Stevens reports: The U.S. Postal Service said Monday that its more than 500,000 employees could be affected by a data breach that may have compromised data including names, Social Security numbers and addresses. The Postal Service said its revenue systems — including at post offices and online — weren’t compromised, and credit and debit…
Federal workers weaken cyberdefense
Associated Press reports: A $10 billion-a-year effort to protect sensitive government data, from military secrets to Social Security numbers, is struggling to keep pace with an increasing number of cyberattacks and is unwittingly being undermined by federal employees and contractors. Workers scattered across more than a dozen agencies, from the Defense and Education departments to…
AL: Records containing minor’s sensitive information were publicly available through Birmingham City Schools website
Madison Underwood reports that hundreds of records containing minor’s sensitive information – names, birthdates, phone numbers and more – were publically available online at a website operated by Birmingham City Schools. Read more on AL.com. Would this be a good time to remind everyone that Alabama is one of only a few states that does not…
Should the FTC Be Regulating Privacy and Data Security?
Daniel Solove and Woodrow Hartzog write: This past Tuesday the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint against AT&T for allegedly throttling the Internet of its customers even though they paid for unlimited data plans. This complaint was surprising for many, who thought the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was the agency that handled such telecommunications issues. Is…