After 10 days of dealing with the aftermath of a stolen bank courier vehicle, Iredell County officials are changing the way they handle processed tax payments.

... While the information was recovered during a traffic stop May 2, the county is moving toward a more computerized system and reducing the number of unprocessed items transported by courier, Furches said.

Source - Mooresville Tribune

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Organisations that deliberately or recklessly commit serious breaches of the Data Protection Act can now be fined by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) following Royal Assent to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act today.

David Smith, deputy information commissioner, said, "This change in the law sends a very clear signal that data protection must be a priority and that it is completely unacceptable to be cavalier with people's personal information."

Source - ComputerWeekly

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Government staff have been sending out highly sensitive data in packages that include the passwords, it was revealed.

The Department for Work and Pensions errors "defeat the purpose" of tighter rules brought in after last year's data loss scandals, an internal e-mail said.

The admission comes in a message circulated to staff by one of the DWP's security advisers, and will provoke fresh doubts over Government systems.

Source - teletext

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House Democrats continued to block passage of a terrorist surveillance bill today, rejecting a measure by Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) to add the Senate-passed FISA bill to the fiscal 2009 Intelligence authorization bill. The amendment was defeated by one vote in the House Intelligence Committee, the latest proof that the Senate bill would pass the House if Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed it to come to the House floor. Congress let emergency surveillance powers lapse more than 80 days ago.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the committee’s top Republican, said it was irresponsible for Congress not to act on the bipartisan measure.

Source - The Heritage Foundation

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After its largest public consultation exercise ever, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) expects that the single biggest reform to Australia's information privacy laws will be the proposal for a set of uniform and simplified principles for businesses, organisations and individuals.

The ALRC is due to present its final report and recommendations on amendments to Australia's information privacy laws to the Attorney General at the end of this month, which will bear significant impact on IT practices and the way electronic data is collated, stored and maintained.

Source - ARN

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The world's most popular social networking site MySpace is to allow users to make their information available to other websites.

Its "data availability" project will let members share public profile information with Yahoo, Twitter, eBay and Photobucket.

Source - BBC

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Some Dominican University students and alumni were notified this week of a breach in security that could have put their personal information at risk.

The university said two students were able to access records on a staff network storage area in April. The files were three spreadsheets from 2003, 2005 and 2007. The data included the names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdays and Social Security numbers of more than 5,000 students, NBC5's Charlie Wojciechowski reported.

Source - NBC5.com

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Students call the New Trier High School senior facing one count of misdemeanor computer tampering a real whiz kid who has dreams of elite schools.

But before any college aspirations can be realized, the New Trier senior will face the court.

Jonah Greenthal, 18, of Glencoe, allegedly breached New Trier High School's administrative computer network and downloaded private records including ID photos, names, transcripts, and test scores of "dozens" of students, said Winnetka Deputy Chief of Police Patrick Kreis. Greenthal allegedly saved the stolen information on his personal laptop computer.

Source - Wilmette Life

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Companies have launched a database which allows them to share details of employees accused of dishonesty at work.

The National Staff Dismissal Register lets firms log details of staff caught stealing, committing fraud or damaging company property.

Other companies can then use the database to check job applicants' history.

Trade Unions and Civil Liberties groups condemned the move. GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny said: "There will be an enormous kick back against this and GMB as the major union for shop workers will lead the charge."

Source - Grimsby Telegraph

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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Thursday reached an agreement with one of the Lone State's largest payday lenders over claims the company recklessly disposed of consumers' financial information.

Abbott reached the settlement with CNG Financial Corp. and its subsidiaries, Check 'n Go of Texas, Inc. and Southwestern & Pacific Specialty Finance, Inc.

The agreement resolves the state's May 2007 enforcement action, which charged the Mason, Ohio-based company with violating state laws governing the disposal of customer records containing sensitive personal information by disposing of business records in easily accessible trash cans.

[...]

Under the agreement, General, Check 'n Go will overhaul its information security program to provide safeguards to protect the company's customers. Check 'n Go also agreed to pay $220,000 to the state to help bankroll future actions against Texas' Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act.

Source - Legal Newsline

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