David Leask reports: Dozens of Scottish police officers are under criminal investigation in a clampdown on data breaches involving the force computer system. A total of 43 officers have been put on to restricted duties and another officer has been suspended, solely because of allegations of illegally accessing confidential information. Read more on Herald Scotland….
Ca: 6,000 former high school students’ information exposed
Laura Cudworth reports: About 6,000 former high school students had personal information compromised after a staff member at the Avon Maitland District School Board transferred the files electronically. The board was alerted to the security breach, which lasted about five weeks, when a former student did a search of her own name and was able…
Be Careful Beating Up Target (Part 1)
Craig Carpenter of AccessData writes: A flurry of stories surfaced this week, including those in Bloomberg BusinessWeek and InformationWeek, highlighting signals of compromise that Target apparently “missed” or even “ignored”, resulting in the theft of 40 million credit card accounts. Clearly the Target breach was serious and wide-ranging, as it affected a large number of customers and even hit…
MN: Former state employee who led ID theft ring gets 4.5 years
Emily Gurnon reports: A former state Department of Labor and Industry worker was sentenced Friday to 4-1/2 years in prison for her role in a broad identity-theft ring. Roxanne Kay DeFlorin was the last of four defendants sentenced in Ramsey County District Court in the scheme, which included DeFlorin’s theft of identities from her job….
NL: Vodafone blunders by publishing thousands of secret phone numbers
Phone firm Vodafone has admitted publishing the phone numbers and addresses of thousands of people who wanted to be ex-directory – by mistake. The company blames both technical and human failings for the fact that over 90,000 numbers have been inclued (sic) in paper and electronic phone books, and included in number information service listings….
How to avoid a €100 million data fine in Europe
Jennifer Baker reports: A law approved by the European Parliament on Wednesday and aimed at protecting citizens’ privacy comes with sweeping penalties for breaches—up to €100 million (US$139 million) or 5 percent of global annual turnover, whichever is larger. The European Data Protection Regulation will apply not only to European companies, but any company that…