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Privacy Breach In Canadian Passport Application Site

Posted by kdawson on from the didn't-need-that-old-identity-anyhow dept.

Joanna Karczmarek sends us news of a massive privacy breach in the Government of Canada passport website. "A security flaw in Passport Canada's website has allowed easy access to the personal information — including social insurance numbers, dates of birth and driver's license numbers — of people applying for new passports. ... The breach was discovered last week by an Ontario man completing his own passport application. He found he could easily view the applications of others by altering one character in the Internet address displayed by his Web browser."

5 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. In your BEACH, slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    In your BEACH !!

  2. More fool them. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I couldn't agree more with the sentiment behind this. To be honest, I think it's just what we needed. Granted, the situation could have been better applied than it was but heck it's a start at least. We should just be thankful for the grace we have been given I suppose.

    Google search results here

  3. Accidentally on purpose by threaded · · Score: 0, Troll

    I just don't get it: someone like me, when I work on such systems just see these kinds of problems and flag them.

    So either: no one saw it (which I find very hard to believe), no one flagged it, or was it, as tends to happen: ignored by the clueless management to save money?

    Then there is the tin-foil hat reason: they wanted to make it easy for peoples data to be stolen, much like has happened numerous times in the UK recently.

    --

    threadeds blog

  4. Re:25% of Canadians not born in Canada. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The proportion is much higher in the major Canadian cities like Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. It's not unusual to go to a mall, and see 45% to 50% of the people who are clearly not born in Canada. This is evident from their clothing, their mannerisms, and especially their near-complete lack of knowledge of English or French.

    I worked for several years at a Subway in a mall in Toronto. At some times, I'd have to deal with people who didn't know a word of English or French. At busy times, every third person could be like that. One time I had a man from India or Pakistan yell at me in Hindi, Urdu or one of those languages because I put green peppers on his sub after he said "grun peppuh", when he was actually referring to tomatoes.

    I don't know why the Canadian government puts so much effort into passports and other security measures only to turn around and accept basically anyone who wants to immigrate to Canada. It's like securing the windows of your house with metal bars, only to tear down one of your walls and put up signs advertising how expensive your big screen TV is, and then wonder why your TV was stolen.

  5. Re:Wonderful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    that would be fun to ask the same of them,,,,and every country to ask it from them.

    In the news today, to get a passport in the us the wait time is now 3 years,,,,,because 1 % had them now the rest needs it to move around.

    It's funny how the United states ask everything out of everyone but gets frustrated and make economics sanction on other countries when the other parties ask the same out of them.


    Firstly, cites or STFU with respect to the US using sanctions with respect to passports. Now. Didn't think so. It must be difficult coming from such a small-dicked country. Do you feel emasculated? You should.

    Secondly, who wants to leave the US? I spend my vacation dollars right here. Deserts, beaches, mountains, forests, arctic, we've got it all.