Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Massive Cache of Law Enforcement Personal Data Breached


According to ZDNet (June 29, 2018) "A data breach at a federally funded active shooter training center has exposed the personal data of thousands of US law enforcement officials. The cache of data contained identifiable information on local and state police officers, and federal agents, who sought out or underwent active shooter response training in the past few years. The database contained thousands of personal data records, including law enforcement officer's work contact information, with many of the records listing personal email addresses, work addresses, and cell numbers.

The database powers the website of Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training -- known as ALERRT -- at Texas State University. More than 114,000 law enforcement officials have been trained by ALERRT.

Another table in the database contained 51,345 sets of geo-location coordinates of schools, courts, police departments, and government buildings, like city halls and administrative offices. The data also included places of interest, such as where people gather -- like universities and malls. The list also contained, in some cases, police officers' home addresses. We confirmed this using Google's Street View, which in several cases revealed marked police vehicles outside the residence."
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Anytime personal information is contained in a database there is a risk that the information will be compromised. Too often it's not a question of if there will be a data breach, rather it's only a question of when there will be a data breach. For individuals, always limit the amount of information that you provide to any business or organization. For organizations, limit the amount of information you collect to only that required to accomplish your mission. If you must store personal information be sure that it is stored on a secure / encrypted device.


 
 

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