Category Archives: government data breach

Teacher Data Hacked. 3 Keys from the ISD Response.

What did hackers breach? Lawrence, MA Public Schools’ online database

How did the hackers breach the school database? A phishing attack 

What did hackers take? Teachers’ personal information:

  • names
  • phone numbers
  • addresses
  • Social Security numbers
  • calendar year 2015 gross earnings

How did the school district respond?

  • email to teachers informing them of the breach
  • explained that the district would:
    • mitigate the breach
      • directing teachers to sign up for 90 days of free credit…

INTERIM. 8 Elements of Data Security Laws & Regulations.

  • Data Breach Definition.
    • What data was breached?
    • The level of knowledge the data holder must have of the breach before notification is triggered. Did they know? Is it reasonable that this data was breached?
  • How to treat good faith access to data by an unauthorized employee
  • How to treat the breach of account creditial information.
    • user name, passwords, and security questions
  • Timing.
    • ​When must notification be given?
  • How to treat data processors, people who hold the data but…

New Legal Trend. Suing the Company Hired to Stop the breach. 2 Take Aways for Government Procurement for Data Security Services.

What‘s happening? Affinity Gmaing, owners of 11 casinos, is suing the company it hired to contain a data breach.

How is this relevant to Texas government? Pay close attention to the enforcement actions and lawsuits that emerge from the federal government OPM data breach in which the company hired for remediation.

Why is this important? the laws related to data security are chaning at lightening fast speed. Faster than a lobbyist can walk, and on a very complex, technical topic which…

INTERIM. 2 Elements of a Data Breach Response That Trigger new State Causes of Action.

What dam got hacked? Iranian hackers targeted a dam in New York. Shortly thereafter Ukranian hackers got into a power grid.

What type of hack triggers a state response or the creation of a new state penalty?

  • Look to whether the hackers took control of the system or just “looked around”
  • Look to whether any person was injured as a result

Just Security | Was the Cyber Attack on a Dam in New York an Armed Attack?

INTERIM. Lege Trend. State Suffers Major Breach. Responds with 2 Step legislation.

What was the state government data breach? in 2012, South Carolina suffered a data breach that exposed records for 6 million taxpayers.

What legislative fixes have emerged from South Carolina in wake of this data breach?

  • Support agencies’ preventive measures
    •  dual-password programs
    • laptop encryption
  • Centralize cybersecurity in an office under the governor.
    •  Allows an information security director to oversee and enforce statewide standards.

Governing | 2016’s Top…

Hacking Mother Lode at the U.S. Department of Education. 5 Points to Know First. Education Contractors Be Aware.

  • Treasure Trove of Data. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) is warning that a hack on the Department of Education would make the OPM data breach look like child’s play
  • 1/2 of all U.S. government records are at the U.S. Department of Education
  • Bad Inspector General Report. Deficiencies in security at Department of Education were called out by a November Inspector General report
  •  An F In Security. The agency also got an F in implementing security requirements…

5 Most Costly Data Breaches of 2015. Taxpayer Costs. Procurement Opportunities.

  • IRS breach. 100,000 taxpayers exposed. Estimated cost $50 Million.
  • Anthem health insurance breach. 80 million health insurance records leaked. Cost estimate $100 Million.
  • Office of Personnel Management.  21 million federal employee and contact records breached. Minimum cost is the $133 million contract to a credit monitoring and mitigation services provider.
  • Ashley Madison Breach. 37 million customer information hacked. A class action lawsuit seeks $578 million.
  • Two Year 100 banks…

Lege Trend | Tuck Data Security Bill into Spending Bill

Change general law in a spending bill? No, say it isn’t so. Yes, it is so. 

Congress is adding data security language to is spending authorization bill. Here are the highlights that have privacy advocaes on the right and left up in arms:

  • The government already spies on its citizens too much
  • Going light on businesses that share more information about data breaches with the government and other businesses isn’t helping privacy
  • Protecting from disclosure under the Freedom of Information…

Agency Slapped for Mismanaging Data Security Contract

Which agency is causing an uproar? The federal Office of Personnel Management. AKA “The OPM Breach of 2015”

How did the agency mishandle the data breach? A report this week from OPM’s Inspector General found 5 contracting irregularities when OPM awarded a $21M clean up the data breach contract. 

The 5 Government Contracting Problems:

  • OPM did not offer a complete scope of the work
  • Conduced inadequate market research
  • had an incomplete acquisition plan
  • exceeded dollar limits on blanket…

Lege Trend: State Budget to Boost Data Security

Where? Virgina

What budget provisions are boosting data security? Governor McAuliffe says the state’s budget will include education investments for cybersecurity, including:

  • scholarships for students who agree to serve two years of public service in the cybersecurity workforce after graduation
  • increased cybersecurity training in high school including:
    • new virtual, secure platform to enhance student cyber skills
    • providing training on cyberattack detection and defense
    • developing…