Information security analytics

A student paid £150 for a Blackberry phone which contained the personal details of cabinet ministers, others MPs, civil servants and senior police officers.Journalism student Darryl Curtis, 44, said he bought the device from a homeless man in Sheffield and found it contained the details of several hundred people.He said it also held the National Insurance number, home address and computer passwords of a former chief executive of Sheffield City Council, leading him to believe it was once his.

A van and $500,000 worth of computer data were stolen over the weekend from a Town of Plymouth business, according to the Sheboygan County Sheriff's Department.

FREDERICTON — There were calls from the Opposition on Friday for New Brunswick Health Minister Mike Murphy to quit or be fired after the third breach of confidential health records in just over a year."The minister of health should have already lost his job," said Conservative Leader David Alward."Someone has to take responsibility and that responsibility stops at the top."

More than two months after the first announcement of the Heartland Payment Systems security breach, the processor has continued to draw fire from merchants and issuers. Damages from what may be the largest PCI data breach in history continue to snowball into public relations disputes, lawsuits and government probes aimed at the company.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (“EPIC”) recently filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) accusing Google of failing to implement adequate privacy and data security safeguards and engaging in unfair and deceptive trade practices related to its “cloud computing” services. EPIC asked the FTC to open an investigation into Google’s cloud computing services and to bar Google from offering such services until it establishes adequate safeguards.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A man has been accused of using stolen Social Security numbers to buy a new home, vehicles and electronics, and then selling the information to others in a multimillion-dollar identity theft ring. Jerry Van Le, 30, did not enter a plea to charges of bank, wire and computer fraud during an initial appearance Friday in federal court in Sacramento. He was freed until an April 16 preliminary hearing.

GLOBAL STUDY OF INFORMATION LEAKS IN 2008 The InfoWatch Analytical Center has summarized last year’s results, and is presenting the next in a series of global studies of internal informational security incidents. The purpose of this project is to analyze all confidential information leaks (including those containing personal data), which have been reported in the mass media over the past year. We analyzed incidents throughout the world in the public and private sectors. Back in 2004, the InfoWatch Center started creating its database of reported incidents.

Following a data leak incident, the Information CommissionerРІР‚в„ўs Office (ICO) in the UK has ordered (PDF) Camden Primary Care Trust (PCT) to ensure patient data safety when disposing of old computer equipment. The trust risks being held in contempt of court, if it does not update the Office on the progress made until March 31.

A council has suspended all work with a contractor after a laptop containing personal details of almost 3,000 people was stolen. Suffolk Coastal District Council has written to all those whose details were on the laptop, which contained names and addresses of licensing applicants. The laptop was stolen from the home of a worker for Wiltshire firm LalPac Ltd.

The reckless actions of a drunk and upset former consultant who worked for Australia's Northern Territory Government ended up costing the taxpayers 1.2 million Australian dollars. The ex-IT staffer deleted more than 10,000 accounts belonging to government employees from critical servers. David Anthony McIntosh resigned in April 2008 from his position as an IT consultant and apparently planned to follow a career as a chef. However, during the same period, his finacee broke off their engagement. That caused him to move in with a former female co-worker and turn to heavy drinking.