Possible Data breach of NZ Police Gun Buy back register

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Ge0rge

528 posts

Ultimate Geek

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# 261534 2-Dec-2019 15:24

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/117596483/privacy-breach-has-police-shut-down-gun-buyback-website

Police have shut down the firearm buyback registration platform after the details of over 37,000 owners have potentially been made publicly available.

Info includes licence details, their firearms, addresses, bank details and phone numbers.

Scary for those who have done the right thing and registered their details and firearms.

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3452 posts

Uber Geek

# 2364926 2-Dec-2019 15:36

I know a few gunslingers starting to stand out (abusing 'system', and government incompetence and so on and so on - almost falling into stereotypes they are hard against/fight to say they are not). Naturally they've all jumped on this as more fuel to that fire.

Guess someone will have to answer as why the info wasn't segregated off. Would have had a red target painted on it and be a matter of time given that there would be groups targeting it for a way in. Especially with the early campaigns with US influence from early on. And of course the scheme just had another boost last week on US tv with the tonight show NZ PM spot.

nathan

5216 posts

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Microsoft

# 2364937 2-Dec-2019 15:57

4 people support this post

It’s not controversial to say it’s incompetence.

Some may say the buyback is a smokescreen to divert attention away from the negligence of the firearms officer that issued the person a license, 5 weeks after arriving in NZ, with no friends or family.

Ge0rge

528 posts

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# 2364939 2-Dec-2019 15:59

That would be a politics discussion and not really appropriate for a discussion about the data breach.

Zeon

3509 posts

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# 2364967 2-Dec-2019 16:56

2 people support this post

Not at all surprising. Was seemeingly good politics to have a rushed process about the new legislation and yet another failure as a result. Further bad downstream effects for political theatre.....

Speedtest 2019-10-14

JaseNZ

1557 posts

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# 2364993 2-Dec-2019 18:10

2 people support this post

Our overseas vendor, yada yada yada.

Why the hell are they not using locally sourced experience.

Yup complete incompetence especially around something like this.

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding : Ice cream man , Ice cream man

dt

553 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 2365004 2-Dec-2019 18:13

was surprised to see how quickly this had already made international headlines, RT published it earlier in the afternoon

nathan

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# 2365011 2-Dec-2019 18:18

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dt:
was surprised to see how quickly this had already made international headlines, RT published it earlier in the afternoon

Russia propaganda loves to create divisions, highlight US 2nd Ammendment issues, gun control blah blah

Ge0rge

528 posts

Ultimate Geek

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# 2365015 2-Dec-2019 18:28

Nash has claimed that only one person viewed the data.

Colfo claim it was sent screen shots of the data from several of it's members.

I don't want to call anyone a liar, but I'm struggling to see how they can both be telling the truth...

tdgeek

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# 2365019 2-Dec-2019 18:33

2 people support this post

Is it the Govt job to secure the data? Its the IT guys job. Govt certainly owns the breach but I doubt Twyford looks after it :-)

This incompetence is very common. Probably all of the flagship global Tech companies have been breached, what's happens to them?

loceff13

807 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 2365026 2-Dec-2019 18:44

3 people support this post

It's a shame the person who discovered it attempted to make it political(involving colfo) and possibly exposed others to danger rather than disclosing it to the right people then going public after it was resolved.

Handle9

2644 posts

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# 2365027 2-Dec-2019 18:45

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JaseNZ:
Our overseas vendor, yada yada yada.

Why the hell are they not using locally sourced experience.

Yup complete incompetence especially around something like this.

What does an overseas vendor have to do with competence? There are plenty of Muppets in NZ

JaseNZ

1557 posts

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# 2365167 2-Dec-2019 20:09

Handle9:
JaseNZ:

Our overseas vendor, yada yada yada.

Why the hell are they not using locally sourced experience.

Yup complete incompetence especially around something like this.

What does an overseas vendor have to do with competence? There are plenty of Muppets in NZ

Absolutely but the government might as well pay our own muppets 😀.

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding : Ice cream man , Ice cream man

hio77

'That VDSL Cat'
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Spark

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# 2365168 2-Dec-2019 20:17

One person supports this post

JaseNZ:

Handle9:
JaseNZ:

Our overseas vendor, yada yada yada.

Why the hell are they not using locally sourced experience.

Yup complete incompetence especially around something like this.

What does an overseas vendor have to do with competence? There are plenty of Muppets in NZ

Absolutely but the government might as well pay our own muppets 😀.

Would not surprise me if there was a project manager or finance person pushing for the cheapest fastest solution.

One of the risks you make when you try to go hard and fast is well, it can get messy...

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

Oblivian

3452 posts

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# 2365170 2-Dec-2019 20:36

We can confirm that a dealer with legitimate access to the online notification platform for the firearm buy-back programme has been able to view details of firearms owners.

We were notified of the error this morning when the dealer contacted us.

Upon being notified all efforts were made to immediately shut down access to the platform.

We have been able to identify the error back to an update made by our vendor last week which provided dealers a higher level of access to the notifications database.

The update was not authorised by Police.

Our investigations have shown only one dealer login has accessed the system since the update.

We believe this was an isolated incident and made possible due to human error.

The vendor for the online notification platform is German based global software company SAP.

The firearms buy-back programme is continuing and we will be using a manual process to manage the return of prohibited firearms.

The online notification platform will remain offline until we can be reassured by our vendor that the platform is secure.

We take the privacy of the public information we hold seriously and we will undertake our own additional checks to ensure the system is secure before the online notification platform is re-established.

We have advised the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and we are working to identify and then notify those whose information has been accessed.

——

Statement from SAP spokesperson:

SAP can confirm it was notified of a security breach to the New Zealand Police gun buy back system this morning.

The security breach indicated that a single dealer user had accessed information not intended to its user profile.

As soon as the full details of this incident were understood, all user profiles on the system, except for SAP consultants investigating, were locked, and remain so.

As part of new features intended for the platform, security profiles were to be updated to allow certain users to be able to create citizens records.

A new security profile was incorrectly provisioned to a group of 66 dealer users due to human error by SAP.

We unreservedly apologise to New Zealand Police and the citizens of New Zealand for this error.

The security of our customers and their data is of absolute priority to us.

A full internal investigation is already underway within SAP.

We continue to work with and offer our full resources to New Zealand Police to ensure the system is fully secure and up and running again as soon as possible.

boosacnoodle

81 posts

Master Geek

# 2365244 3-Dec-2019 00:22

3 people support this post

I'm just wondering how much the SAP bill will be by the end of all of this.

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