Ah the joy of life on the Rock. A beautiful part of Canada where life has a comfortable pace. Sadly, that appears to apply to their governments handling of data and computer security.
DO YOU assume the personal information that government agencies keep on us is safe and secure? With all the new privacy laws it must be, right? Privacy laws are all fine, but unless basic computer and data security measures are put in place and adhered to, it’s all for naught.
This is what a number of Newfoundlanders found out in rude fashion this past month when it was revealed that their personal records, including test results for HIV and hepatitis, on file at the provincial Public Health Laboratory and medical and financial records from the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission, ended up on the Internet.
Was this the work of computer hackers data mining for identity theft or financial information? No, it was more mundane than that. One should never assume conspiracy when banality is a perfectly good explanation.
It appears contractors with these provincial agencies removed the data from the offices and took them home to systems that were unsecured and “leaked” to the Internet. The contractor with the health department removed a computer from the office, took it home and installed file sharing programs, opening the computer to the online world through his unsecured home Internet connection.
Damn that Skreech can rot yer brain.
[tags]Newfoundland Government, NFLD Data Security, NFLD Privacy[/tags]