Security News
Northern Ireland's police chief, Simon Byrne, resigned last night after an emergency meeting of the Policing Board amid discontent in the rank and file over a data breach that exposed serving officers' info, as well as news he was considering appealing a court ruling linked to the Troubles. An armed police officer stands guard at a cordon point while army ammunition technical officers examine a suspected bomb in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
A man was arrested in Northern Ireland for suspected Collection of Terrorist Information following an incident where police mistakenly leaked details that identified 10,000 serving officers, but he has now been released on bail. The information was leaked when police posted a spreadsheet online listing the surnames and initials of 10,000 serving officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland, plus civilian staff members.
A spreadsheet containing details of serving Northern Ireland police officers was mistakenly posted online yesterday, potentially endangering the safety of officers, given the volatile politics of the region. The data leak involved a spreadsheet detailing the surnames and initials of all serving officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland, plus civilian staff members.
Ireland's data protection authority has fined WhatsApp Ireland €5.5 million for breaches of the GDPR relating to its service and told it comply with data processing laws within six months. Why Ireland? The Irish Data Protection Commissioner is the head regulator for several of the US tech giants, and this is because they have sited their operations in the European Union member state - with its Silicon Valley friendly 12.5 percent corporate tax rate.
Updated A legal saga between Meta, Ireland and the European Union has reached a conclusion - at least for now - that forces the social media giant to remove data consent requirements from its terms of service in favor of explicit consent, and subjects it to a few hundred million more euros in fines for the trouble. The Irish Data Protection Commision said today that it has made a final decision fining Meta's Irish operating arm a combined €390 million for violations of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, and directing it to "Bring its data processing operations into compliance within a period of 3 months," the DPC said.
A threat brief published by the US Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday paints a grim picture of how Ireland's health service, the HSE, was overwhelmed and had 80% of its systems encrypted during last year's Conti ransomware attack. "The HSE did not have a single responsible owner for cybersecurity, at senior executive or management level at the time of the incident. There was no dedicated committee that provided direction and oversight of cybersecurity and the activities required to reduce the HSE's cyber risk exposure," the HHS Cybersecurity Program said.
A Russian naval exercise in the Atlantic, near several submarine cables between Britain, France and the US, is more likely to be sabre-rattling than an attempt to sabotage critical communication links. In its original location the exercise caught the eye of many more people - because it sat right on top of two existing submarine cables and a third due to be commissioned in the next couple of months.
Northern Ireland's Department of Health has temporarily halted its COVID-19 vaccine certification online service following a data exposure incident. Some users of the COVIDCert NI service were presented with data of other users, under certain circumstances, says the Department.
Northern Ireland's Department of Health has temporarily halted its COVID-19 vaccine certification online service following a data exposure incident. Some users of the COVIDCert NI service were presented with data of other users, under certain circumstances, says the Department.
Ireland dramatically loosened international travel restrictions on Monday, joining an EU-wide pandemic passport scheme weeks later than the rest of the bloc after a ransomware attack hobbled healthcare IT systems. All EU member states were connected to a matching digital Covid certificate system on July 1.