November 20, 2015
A modern phenomena of data storage has been the ever growing volume of personal information kept under the control of organisations and agencies. Slack controls Read the rest of this entry »
November 19, 2015
At the annual IaapANZ Summit held yesterday (which I attended) the Privacy Commissioner made his keynote annual speech. Commissioner Pilgrim does provide something of an overview of where the Office has been going and will be going for the next year. The problem generally is that Read the rest of this entry »
Data breaches are depressingly regular and sometimes, rarely, unavoidable. Hence the need to have a response plan. In the article Taxpayer records exposed by serious ATO, myGov security flaw the problem is not so much the breach, which was bad enough but the woeful response by government when the defect is detected. The phenomenam of extreme suspicion if not hostility by Government or big organisation to white hat hackers and those IT individuals who pick flaws in security has been Read the rest of this entry »
November 17, 2015
Technology is filling a gap left by the law in privacy. The Australian has a very interesting piece, Privacy protection the new black: Turnbull spruik boost for Wickr on Wikr and how the Prime Minister’s enthusiasm for this messaging app has boosted its use. It is a very interesting piece. Wikr is not alone. On 29 October 2015 Tor released a new beta version of Tor messenger while gmail is now warning users when messages arrive from unencrypted connections.
A large part of the reason for Read the rest of this entry »
November 16, 2015
It is not only the Federal Trade Commission that has been active in dealing with poor data security in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission (the “FCC”) has been taking enforcement action for data breaches as it did against YourTel America (see my post here) which resulted in a $3.5million settlement. Heavy settlement payments have been extracted from malefactors as FCC did with AT & T Services Inc agreeing to pay $25 million in April this year when it failed to properly protect the confidentiality of almost 280,000 customers.
Earlier this month the FCC in a 18 page notification announced a settlement of $595,000 with cable company Cox Communications regarding poor privacy protections which Read the rest of this entry »
Data breaches are one thing. The real issue is the impact of data breaches. The data breach of Queensland Department of Education and TAFE highlights the unfortunate consequences. The personal information accessed includes Read the rest of this entry »
November 15, 2015
The data breach of the UK telco TalkTalk is throwing considerable light on how data breaches create reputational damages, can be difficult to quantify accurately early on and can have ripple effects on the organisation. And how much they cost. It has also Read the rest of this entry »
Cyber attacks are occurring and being reported at such a regular basis that the coverage has been less breathless and dramatic than it was several years ago. That is not to say there is no reportage. It is more that the stories, such as the Ashley Maddison or Sony hacks either tend to have a sensational tinge to them or, like the OPM attack, are on a massive scale. Read the rest of this entry »
November 10, 2015
It has been a bad day for Queensland Education, at least on line. The Queensland TAFe and Education departmens websites have been breached according to the itnews report Qld TAFE, Education websites hacked. Interestingly the Government was made aware of the Read the rest of this entry »
In the United Kingdom the Information Commissioner has been busy of late fining Pharmacy 2U £130,000 for selling details of its customers and the Crown Prosecution Service for serious breaches of data security. While the Information Commissioner has had his critics over time he is quite strong on dealing with data security breaches and has imposed swingeing penalties in the past, and Read the rest of this entry »