PlayStation data theft hits 70m gamers

BBC News reports that Sony has warned users of its PlayStation Network that their personal information, including credit card details, may have been stolen.

The company said that the data might have fallen into the hands of an "unauthorised person" following a hacking attack on its online service.

Access to the network was suspended last Wednesday, but Sony has only now revealed details of what happened.

Read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13192359

BNP Ex-Security Chief Fined For Leaking Members List

A former senior official in the British National Party was fined £200 yesterday and castigated by a district judge after he admitted leaking the far-right party's membership list online.
Matt Single, 37, the BNP's former security chief, was behind the disclosure of the names and addresses of 12,000 people, including a police officer who was consequently sacked. Single had been charged under the Data Protection Act.

Continue reading here: http://www.securityoracle.com/news/detail.html?id=15839

UK Counter-terrorism chief quits after revealing confidential document to photographers

Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer has resigned after making a security blunder which caused an anti-terror operation to be brought forward, the BBC report. Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick inadvertently revealed secret papers to photographers when arriving for a Downing Street briefing on Wednesday.

Continue reading here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7991307.stm

EU Agency presents a new study on how to counter information security risks with a change in the financial sector staff awareness.

Loss caused by theft of customer information and costs of security incidents response is rising according to a new ENISA report. Security breaches in financial organisations can cause heavy financial losses. Employee information security awareness is the way forward, the EU Agency's white paper claims.

Safeguarding personal and financial data is key for the financial services industry. According to the 2008 report of the UK Financial Services Authority financial services firms could significantly reconsider their approaches to data security. Both the costs for less by theft of customer information and the cost of responding to security incidents are rising. Security breaches in financial organisations damages both reputation and causes heavy financial losses, difficult to recover from.

Employees are now considered the single most likely cause of security incidents, confirmed in many international surveys (2007 Global State of Security, the 2008 BERR survey, et al). BERR reports that 47% of large businesses suffer from staff misuse of information systems. Technical solutions are no longer the solution nowadays. The cost for training staff constitutes an important financial commitment for any organisation.

The report is an assessment of the environment of financial organisations and their main business drivers. It presents the landscape of international standards, legislation and certification objectives together with major risks, threats and end-users behaviour. Moreover, the paper covers the different phases of implementation of awareness raising programme in financial organisations and assessment of results. It is imperative that all roles are clearly defined and match them to the corresponding security topics, as identified in tables in the report. Finally, the paper contains practical advice, a set of 20 recommendations and 7 case studies provided by a number of financial organisations around Europe. The ENISA Virtual Working Group on “How to organise awareness raising programmes in financial organisations” contributed to this paper.

The Executive Director of ENISA, Mr. Andrea Pirotti comments on the report:
“The poor state of data security is a serious issue for the financial markets. This is not the time not to invest in security and training for staff, as the costs and consequences thereof may be business critical.”

To view the complete report please visit: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/doc/pdf/deliverables/is_awareness_financial_organisations.pdf

Deutsche Telekom Says Data From 17 Million Customers Was Stolen

Deutsche Telekom has confirmed that personal information from 17 million of its mobile phone customers was stolen in 2006, including secret telephone numbers of high-profile politicians and celebrities.

Deutsche Telekom said the stolen data includes customer mobile phone numbers, addresses, dates of birth and, in some cases, email addresses. Bank information or credit card numbers were not accessed, said the Bonn-based firm.

There has reportedly been no indication that the data has been misused, though the Telekom said "extreme criminal energy" was behind the theft.

German newsmagazine Spiegel reported on Saturday, Oct. 4, that is had obtained access to the missing information via a third party. The news apparently came as a surprise to Deutsche Telekom, where the case was considered closed.

"We had assumed that this data had been fully secured as part of an investigation by the district attorney," Philipp Humm, director of Deutsche Telekom's mobile phone division T-Mobile, said in a statement. Data security measures had been fortified since 2006, he added.

According to media reports Saturday, Oct. 4, Telekom had contacted the appropriate authorities as soon as the data was stolen in 2006 and an investigation has since been underway.

Telekom said it had conducted research after the theft and discovered that copies of the data had been offered on the black market but had apparently not been bought. Few customers brought complaints pertaining to the data mishap, though a special hotline telephone number was set-up.

The public prosecutor's office in Bonn told reporters that pieces of data had been confiscated from private homes, but that the thieves themselves had not yet been detained.

Celebrity customers, including comedian Hape Kerkeling and television moderator Guenther Jauch, high-ranking politicians, billionaires and clergymen were reportedly among those affected by the data breach.

For some of them, it could represent a threat to their security if their secret personal telephone numbers landed in the hands of criminals.

Saturday's revelation is not Telekom's first brush with data scandals. Earlier this year, the firm admitted that calls between journalists and board members had been illegally monitored in 2005 and 2006.

From http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3690132,00.html