The government’s information security reputation suffered another blow this week, after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) revealed that serious data breaches have risen fourfold over the past year. The MoD’s latest resource accounts (PDF) reveal that the department suffered eight serious breaches in the 2008 to 2009 period, up from just two in the preceding…
Gates faults U.S. on data privacy, immigration
In a far-ranging speech on Friday, Bill Gates criticized the American government’s policy on immigration and data privacy, predicted giant leaps in technology in the near future and explained why he had to shut down his Facebook page. […] Gates was also critical of the United States government’s unwillingness to adopt a national identity card,…
Lessons to learn from the Clear kiosk program’s demise
… The Clear program was supposed to make life easier for frequent travelers. Members would simply swipe their Clear card at the program’s airport kiosk, which would then read their biometric data (fingerprint and iris scans) and submit approval for the attending Clear agent to take them through a special, expedited security line. But the…
Mid Sussex District Council breached worker’s privacy
When Roger Mills’s council employer thought he was skiving, he hired private detectives to spy on him. After four months of surveillance, he was sacked for gross misconduct after spending time at home during work hours. There was just one problem. Mr Mills had a long-standing arrangement allowing him to work from home. Yesterday he…