So RTE says that laptop which was actually nicked/lost last year had 380,000 social welfare records on it. Holy shit.
Adrian will no doubt say that the data will never be accessed so it’s nothing to worry about. A granny in Kerry probably has the data, right?
While a junkie indeed might see a laptop valued at 50 quid and sell it on, where it ends up is another thing. Criminals are getting far more sophisticated in these matters as can be seen by the daily phishing attacks on banks, paypal and eBay in Ireland. There are enough gangs of criminals in Ireland into credit card theft and cloning now. Look at the Irish retailer website that got done over. It transpires that the criminals who had the credit card details waited months before trying out siphoning money from the cards.
I think I’d be more concerned with the data on that laptop than the fact that there are eircom modems in use by businesses. Which if cracked into could lead clever criminals to crack other passwords that may eventually lead them into gaining access to point of sales systems. That’s if the POS systems are connected to the same network as wireless modems. And no encryption is used for transmitting credit card details to the verifying server.
I’d be wondering why it took 16 months for this monumental fuck-up to be disclosed. Why are people are only being informed now? Why are banks are only being involved now? Why so long? Why was it not deemed a priority and why is it now an issue if it wasn’t for 16 months?
I’d also wonder how long the Data Protection Commissioner knew of the extent of this information? A few days, weeks, months, a year?
Other views: Brian, Digital Rights Ireland.
