Council workers sacked for snooping personal details

[security curmudgeon <jericho () attrition org>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/08/04/237162/council-workers-sacked-for-snooping-personal-details.htm

By Mark Ballard
ComputerWeekly.com
04 Aug 2009

Nine staff have been sacked from their local authority jobs for snooping 
on personal records of celebrities and personal acquaintances held on the 
core database of the government's National Identity Scheme.

They are among 34 council workers who illegally accessed the Customer 
Information System (CIS) database, which holds the biographical data of 
the population that will underpin the government's multi-billion-pound ID 
card programme.

The disclosures, obtained by Computer Weekly using the Freedom of 
Information Act, will add to calls for the government to come clean over 
the security of the National Identity Scheme.

The CIS database, run by the Department for Work and Pensions, stores up 
to 9,800 items of information on 92 million people, including sensitive 
data, such as ethnicity, relationship history, whether someone is being 
investigated for fraud and whether they have special needs.

[..]
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