In the Service NSW attack, hackers sent emails that looked like a Microsoft Office login page. By gaining access to the 47 staff accounts, the attackers gained access to some five million documents. Around 500,000 of those were likely to contain personal data.
A hacker attack that compromised the private information of hundreds of thousands of NSW residents did little to change the unsafe and outdated methods the government uses to handle sensitive data.
That conclusion was drawn by the NSW Auditor-General in a special report savaging the Service NSW agency’s data regimen and response to the March 2020 cyberattack.
“(Service NSW) continues to use business processes that pose a risk to the privacy of personal information,” Auditor-General Margaret Crawford wrote.
Service NSW slammed over handling of March 2020 cyberattack
The U.S. IRS has made group requests to the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (“FTA”) for customer account information from Swiss banks provided aggregate information under FATCA. At U.S. Behest, Swiss Pry Open Bank Accounts: Geneva Blocks Funds in U.S. Tax Case (Finews 12/4/20), here. The FTA has notified the Banks of a process to respond to such requests. See notices on the Swiss FTA sight here; as listed the banks are (with an indication of which of them joined the DOJ Swiss Bank Program, here):
- AROFIN SA
- Bank Vontobel AG
- Banque Pictet & Cie SA
- Barclays Bank (Suisse) SA
- CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA / Crédit Agricole (Suisse) SA
- FIBI (Suisse) SA en liquidation (entretemps radiée)
- Hinduja Banque (Suisse) SA
- Mirabaud & Cie SA
- Notenstein La Roche Privatbank AG (Bank Vontobel AG)
- PKB PRIVATBANK SA (DOJ Swiss Bank Program)
- Schroder & Co Bank AG (DOJ Swiss Bank Program)
- Union Bancaire Privée, UBP SA (DOJ Swiss Bank Program)
- Zuger Kantonalbank (DOJ Swiss Bank Program
In United States v. Gilmore, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 37861 (3rd Cir. 2020), Court of Appeals Rejects Lawyer Defendant's Proffered Instruction that Cheek Requires Knowledge that Conduct Is Criminal , a nonprecedential opinion, the Court affirmed the convictions of Gilmore, a lawyer, for tax and financial crimes.
Court of Appeals Rejects Lawyer Defendant's Proffered Instruction that Cheek Requires Knowledge that Conduct Is Criminal
The Court rejected Gilmore’s claims that (i) the trial court erred in excluding expert testimony as to a mental-health disorder with respect to willfulness; (ii) the trial court erred in stating in the jury instruction that willfulness require only that the defendant know the conduct was unlawful rather than criminal; and (iii) the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions.
Summons Enforced Against Prominent U.S. Director, Producer, Writer and Convicted Felon After OVDP Termination for Not Disclosing Foreign Indictment
45,000 names, 130 packets of information, and gut instincts: How Biden is managing his transition Washington Post – “Thick packets have been delivered regularly to President-elect Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Del., home, providing meticulous details on each potential Cabinet member’s strengths, weaknesses and possible areas of conflict. Biden has been conducting virtual interviews with final candidates, focusing on their values and life stories nearly as much as their approach to the departments they would lead. He has made Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris perhaps his closest partner in the Cabinet-selection effort; she has interviewed each candidate separately and traded notes with Biden afterward in what people close to the transition say has been an important step in deepening their working relationship. Biden’s transition — which began months before the election results were known — is providing the first portrait, if one largely conducted behind the scenes, of his style as a manager and decision-maker in chief…”
