The identities of more than 100 British officials, including members of the special forces and MI6, were compromised in a data breach that also put thousands of Afghans at risk of reprisal, it can be reported.
The latest fallout from the breach was kept secret by an injunction until Thursday, when the order was lifted in part by a High Court judge. That allowed media organisations to reveal that detailed case notes in the database contained secret personal data of special forces and spies. The government had already admitted on Tuesday the data of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had worked with the British during the 20-year war in Afghanistan and had applied to resettle in the UK had been inadvertently leaked.
Read more…
Source: BBC News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- NCA: Cyber-crime site selling hacking tool taken down following international operation
November 29, 2019
A website which sold a hacking tool purchased by cyber criminals in 124 countries and gave full remote control of victims’ computers has been taken down following an international investigation. 14,500 people across the world purchased the Imminent Monitor Remote Access Trojan (IM RAT) from https://imminentmethods.net for as little as US$25. Once covertly installed on a victim’s computer, IM ...
- Cyber security skills shortage near breaking point
November 27, 2019
The UK’s widening cyber skills gap is putting the country’s businesses at risk, with uncertainty around Brexit is also proving to be a huge concern for recruitment in the field. This is according to research from cyber security consultancy RedSeal, which ran an online survey of 502 IT decision-makers from across the country. Within it, 95% of CIOs and ...
- House of Commons looking for new cyber security director
November 20, 2019
The UK House of Commons is looking to appoint a new Director of Cyber Security for the Parliamentary Digital Service. A contract notice published on the Civil Service Jobs website stated that the selected candidate will have to take overall responsibility for the Palace of Westminster’s cybersecurity strategy. Work involves maintaining awareness of both internal and external ...
- Lizard Squad Threatens UK’s Labour Leader with Cyberattacks Against His Family
November 15, 2019
Lizard Squad, the well-known hacktivist cybergang, is pledging to mount personal cyberattacks on Britain’s Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. As the UK continues to be roiled by Brexit debate ahead of a Dec. 12 general election, the Labour Party said on Tuesday that it had been targeted by a “sophisticated and large-scale” cyberattack bent on taking ...
- Labour Party says it has been hit by ‘large-scale cyber attack’
November 12, 2019
Labour says it has been hit by a “sophisticated and large-scale cyber attack” on its digital platforms. A party spokeswoman said the cyber attack “failed” because of their “robust security systems” and that she was confident no data breach occurred. “Security procedures have slowed down some of our campaign activities, but these were restored this morning and we ...
- London police software quarantines thousands of cybercrime reports
October 25, 2019
Over 9,000 cybercrime reports filed by UK citizens have sat inside a police database without being investigated after security software mistakenly identified them as containing malicious code and placed them in quarantine. All the quarantined reports came from Action Fraud, an official UK police website where victims can report fraud and cybercrime. According to an audit published this week ...