Even Canadian Hackers Are Nice
Jealous of all the attention the U.S. and UK are getting for their magnificent data security breaches, Canada stepped up its own efforts to join in with the other cool kids. Naturally, their screw-up was less than spectacular, to say the least.
When Passport Canada developed its online website for Canadians to apply for passports*, they apparently forgot to secure the data particularly well. Last week, Jamie Laning of Huntsville, Ontario discovered that by changing a couple of characters in the address in his browser, he could open other people's applications, which included all kinds of personal data. And, he... promptly informed the authorities, who immediately shut down the site and issued apologies but, in an half-hearted effort to be "more American," they reportedly didn't totally fix the problem. Buck up, northern friends! It takes a longer period of sovereignty to reach American levels of government fuckuppery, but you'll get there eventually, eh!
*Wait, what the fuck? Americans have to fill out forms by hand and stand in line for hours on end and wait weeks to get their damn passports and Canadians have to fill out a website application? What happened to the greatest country in the world bullshit?
[Photo courtesy of SteelMonkey ]
More sensitive information goes missing from VA [Government Executive]
Passport applicant finds massive privacy breach [Toronto Globe and Mail]