Teri Robinson reports: The Department of Education is primed for a large data breach that could eclipse the one experienced by the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM), House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said last week at a Brookings Institute function. With its rich set of data, including 139 million Social Security numbers and information…
Category: U.S.
WA: Behavior intervention specialist’s client records exposed in misconfigured database
On her web site, Patricia Mullen describes herself as a “behavior intervention specialist” and a former special education teacher. According to her site, she has worked in many school districts and agencies throughout the state of Washington consulting and training. Patricia is also a national trainer having presented to hundreds of foster parents, teachers, and providers…
Databases with voter information and the “database of ruin”
DataBreaches.net recently reported on two inadequately secured MongoDB databases that exposed voters’ information. The public’s reaction to these two incidents illustrated how little the majority of the public knows about what’s in a voter registration list and how such records are viewed by states. But the incidents also raise important questions as to whether existing laws provide adequate protection…
MN: Court says cyberattacks struck judicial branch website Issues
AP reports that the Minnesota Judicial Branch website was unavailable to the public last month due to DDoS attacks. No data were breached. Read more on MPR.
OR: Companies and state agencies must notify state of breaches affecting more than 250 Oregonians
KTVZ reminds everyone that Oregon’s new law has gone into effect whereby businesses and state agencies must notify the Oregon Attorney General of breaches affecting the personal information of at least 250 Oregonians. The new law defines protected data to include any medical, health insurance or biometric information as well as Social Security numbers, government ID numbers or…
FTC e-mail gaffe reveals 600 attendees’ email addresses before privacy conference
Laura Hautala reports: Maybe I’m naive to expect a certain savviness about privacy from the FTC, especially just before it convenes a group of experts in privacy and cybersecurity at a conference in Washington, DC, next week. I certainly didn’t expect the agency to accidentally send out a list of every attendee’s email address. But,…