The EQC data breach
March 23rd, 2013 at 10:00 am by David FarrarThe Press reports:
Accidentally releasing the private information of almost 10,000 claimants is a “very embarrassing” mistake for the Earthquake Commission, Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker says.
How sensitive or private was this information?
This morning information about 9700 claims, including claim numbers and street addresses, was inadvertently sent to one person outside EQC who was not the intended recipient.
The information sent did not include customer names. Most of the information would require knowledge of EQC’s internal workings in order to interpret it.
EQC chief executive Ian Simpson says EQC staff contacted the recipient as soon as the breach was identified. The recipient has agreed to destroy all the information.
I have to say it sounds at the lesser end of the scale. No names, just addresses and claim numbers.
Canterbury Community Earthquake Recovery Network spokeswoman Leanne Curtis said the breach was “unfortunate”.
“It’s unfortunate for the people involved, [EQC] staff included, but I think it’s not unknown to most of us to have sent email to the wrong person at some stage in our life,” she said.
“I think this is a really good lesson for them and I hope they learn from it,” she said.
I understand the problem was the e-mail client did an auto-complete, and it was the wrong name. One can turn auto-complete off but mistakes will happen. Maybe you can put in some system rules where any e-mail with an attachment sent t an external address generates a warning?
Christchurch city councillor Glenn Livingstone said the breach was a “great betrayal of trust”.
Oh, don’t be hysterical.
Livingstone said Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee should also take responsibility for the mistake.
It takes a special kind of politician to turn an accident from a staff member (that was immediately realised and notified, involved no names of people, and was immediately retrieved) into an issue of ministerial responsibility.
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March 23rd, 2013 at 10:10 am
Problem solved – Christchurch rate payers should not vote for this stupid prick in the next council elections.
Vote:March 23rd, 2013 at 10:11 am
Frontfooting the issue has killed it, now its just obvious political opponents trying to beat it up. A lesson for all.
Vote:March 23rd, 2013 at 10:11 am
Just more evidence of the disease afflicting Christchurch – left wing opportunism.
These political psychopaths are drawn to the misery of others and seek to exploit it in every possible way they can, they are parasites, it is as simple as that.
The fact that certain key individuals in Canterbury are now investing in failure instead of the future is tantamount to treason, it is a disgraceful emerging reality and the single biggest hurdle to the city rebuilding.
Vote:March 23rd, 2013 at 10:17 am
I knew this would happen. Because of the political issues arising from prior breaches, the entire civil service gets extremely gun shy, just because a couple of things happened that embarrassed the politicians. When something like the ACC leak happens, I wish the civil service operated on the basis of: grow the fuck up you big baby and get over it, leave us alone to do our jobs and don’t make us change everything on the basis you were embarrassed, who gives a fuck?
But no. What happens is, the entire civil service deeply grovels and bows respectfully at the thought his worship, the most high, the almighty Minister stubbed his widdle toe and it must not, never ever under any circumstances EVER happen again at all. And if necessary, we’ll spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and hundreds of thousands of man-hours getting it all sorted and making it so, and we’re all vewy vewy sorry and please forgive us.
That’s literally what has happened here. It has. Every single govt dept in the entire civil service you can bet, has spent thousands of hours and millions of dollars reviewing their privacy protection processes, since the ACC issue was a hot potato months ago, for a brief period, in the media.
And all this activity is really worthwhile isn’t it, it really helps all those depts really improve their deliverables and do more with less and all the rest of it which is what you really want. Er, no.
What it does is protect the Minister’s butt, no surprises, mustn’t disturb the Minister, oh dear.
Worth it? You bet.
Vote:March 23rd, 2013 at 3:00 pm
It’s obvious that the email recipient isn’t a lefty, as they didn’t ask for special treatment and bring along a supporter.
Vote:March 23rd, 2013 at 9:36 pm
Accidentally releasing the private information of almost 10,000 claimants is a “very embarrassing” mistake for the Earthquake Commission, Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker says.
How sensitive or private was this information?
Fascinating. As soon a name is mentioned i.e. Bob Parker, you’re automatically on the back-foot – trying to justify a privacy breach. Trying to justify it a privacy breach from the outset? The transparency of your argument/statements is astounding. You may as well just write “Bob Parker is a lefto, I don’t like him” – b-o-r-i-n-g.
The first statement wouldn’t be the same if it was anyone else. As b-o-r-i-n-g as listening to politicians rabbit on, especially the ones you hack down for their constant objections to everything. Is this not exactly the same thing?
Vote: