Fragile Technology

US Defense Details On Sale On Ebay Hard Disks

And these guys are supposed to be protecting the free world. The communists were going about it all wrong while trying to bring down the decadent capitalist west. They should have just used eBay:

"In another shocking incident of loss of confidential data which can have adverse consequences on national security for the United States, sensitive details related to an advanced US missile defence system has been found on a second hand computer in California. "

City Double Charges Residents For Water Bill

Thousands of families in the City of Casselberry in Florida have been worried they'd have their water supply cut off after receiving bills that said their water would be cut off. The City has owned up to double charging more than 2,300 people on their water bills following a computer glitch teamed with human error (double whammy!).

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ICO Lambasts British Council After Data Loss

The British Council has copped a serve and been found in breach of the Data Protection Act by the UK's Information Commissioner’s Office after the Council lost a CD containing a trade union membership list. Courier company TNT misplaced the disk, and the Council initially claimed the CD was encrypted, however this has turned out not to be the case. The data included bank details on 2,000 union members.

In its response, the ICO has necessitated British Council to pen a formal agreement to improve its data handling measures, involving immediate encryption of all the mobile and handheld devices that are used to store personal information.

Glitch sparks parking refunds from 10 years ago

Nice article from Ronnie Polaneczky, a writer with Philadelphia Daily News, revealing how she's received payments from the Philadelphia Parking Authority for overpayments on parking tickets from ten years ago.

It's all been sparked by a glitch on a glitch. In 2005 the IT contractor fixed a glitch on the parking ticket system that meant it didn't pick up instances where people had overpaid amounts on their parking tickets. So they fixed the system again, this time enabling scanning back the whole life of the database. Which revealed some $800,000 overpayments for parking tickets. So PPA has sent letters to everyone affected offering refunds.

Of course no system is perfect. When Ronnie opened her latest letter from the Authority she found it also included a mis-inserted letter to another person, also offering a refund.

EU leaders personal data leaked

"unintentional human error" is being blamed after the personal data including passport numbers and flight details, as well as the blood types and allergies of about 200 representatives from EU countries was found on a hotel's computer by one of its guests. The representatives had been attending a recent EU-US conference.

Sounds like a staffer from the conference must have used the hotel computer and left the file behind.

UPDATE

The Czech EU President has apologised and admitted that a publicly available computer did display information on officials taking part in the EU's summit with the United States on April 5:

"The unlucky situation was caused by unintentional human error of one of our employees," the presidency said, expressing "regret that this situation has happened." "However, it needs to be emphasized that the file contained no confidential information according to Czech law and it contained minimum information that might have been seen as sensitive,"

Which kinda ignores the point, the data file, whatever it contained, should not have been left of a public hotel computer. They seem to have dodged the bullet this time.

UK Government's online tax system has glitch

The UK Government has admitted there is a glitch on their online tax return system. A question that should not display, is being shown to users, leading to the possibility the tax payer completing the online form will file an incorrect tax return.

The system still lets taxpayers ask for any tax owed for 2007-08 to be paid via their new PAYE tax code for 2009-10. However this option, for tax of up to £2,000, should have been closed down on 30 December 2008.

Billions of US Govt money incorrectly handled

Two in row today I'm struggling to get my brain wrapped around. This time is the sheer scale. If I read this report right, $72 billion of US government payments are made incorrectly - what they term 'improper payments' which include:

payments that are the wrong amount, go to the wrong person or for the wrong purpose

It's equal to 3.9% of all payments, and up from $42billion and 2.8% in the previous year, although officials attribute the rise to error reporting being implemented on a wider range of spending programs. Which just means those programs probably were just as bad the year before, it's just nobody was counting.

The government’s error rate for program payments rose to 3.9 percent, or $72.1 billion, in fiscal 2008 from 2.8 percent, or $42.1 billion, the previous year, the Office of Management and Budget said. The error rate increased because agencies added 12 programs to those already being measured, OMB said in a recent report.

$72 billion is one heck of a lot of money, although if you only look at the percentage figure it doesn't see so terrible I suppose. It's the scale of government spending that leads to the big number.

But it all must inevitably lead to increased costs to the taxpayers, through the effort required to monitor, identify and rectify the errors.

Veterans Affairs hospitals experiencing medical data problems for months

It's been revealed that at least a third of the 153 Veterans Affairs' hospitals around the USA have been experiencing problems with incorrect medical data on the VA computer system for several months. VA says the glitch is now fixed.

Medical data -- vital signs, lab results, active medications -- sometimes popped up under another patient's name on computer screens. Patients at Veterans Affairs centers around the country received incorrect doses of drugs, faced treatment delays and possibly were exposed to other medical errors because software allowed faulty displays of their electronic health records.

The glitches date back to a software upgrade in August 2008. Steve Buyer, the top Republican on the Veterans Affairs House Committee has demanded an explanation.

"I am deeply concerned about the consequences on patient care that could have resulted from this 'software glitch' and that mistakes were not disclosed to patients who were directly affected," said Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind. "I have asked VA for a forensic analysis of all pertinent records to determine if any veterans were harmed, and I would like to know who was responsible for the testing and authorized the release of the new application."

It's been claimed officials knew about the problem, and lied to cover up.

Hundreds battle health payment system

Thousands of patients and providers have been battling Florida's Medicaid computer billing system since was introduced seven months ago. In many instances the state government has had to make emergency payments to health providers, because glitches with the computer system has led to delays in payments for services flowing through.

Since July, the state Agency for Health Care Administration has provided nearly $500 million in emergency reimbursements to nursing homes, home health agencies and other providers who couldn't get their claims through the new computer system.

The system has been provided by computer giant EDS under a $300 million contract signed three years go, to provide a billing and financial platform for the state's $15 billion Medicaid program

Garbage debt collector letters sent in error

2,400 households in Pittston, Pennsylvania, have received letters from a debt collection agency for garbage removal fees that are already paid.

The City Council contracts out its debt collection to a commercial agency TekCollect, who are refusing the comment. But the City Clerk is not happy.

“This part is very upsetting to us. This is the worst thing that could have happened,”

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