<story><title>Five million Danish ID numbers sent to Chinese firm by mistake</title><url>http://www.thelocal.dk/20160720/five-million-danish-id-numbers-sent-to-chinese-firm-by-mistake</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>seszett</author><text>Let&amp;#x27;s assume they have it.&lt;p&gt;What kind of interest would you say the Chinese government has in the health records of a few million Danish residents? I don&amp;#x27;t know, maybe it&amp;#x27;s really important, but then maybe it&amp;#x27;s not that critical after all.</text></item><item><author>pilif</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt;  But again there is little to no way to figure out for sure whether the Chinese government has this information&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;assume they have it.</text></item><item><author>Svip</author><text>No long, I&amp;#x27;d imagine.  But again there is little to no way to figure out for sure whether the Chinese government has this information.  The story really highlights the careless handling of data, because the chances of the Chinese government (or any other third part) getting access to these data is way too high.</text></item><item><author>throwanem</author><text>How long does a modern machine need to copy off the contents of a couple of CDs? Were the discs in tamper-evident packages?</text></item><item><author>Svip</author><text>Correction:  SSI sent a letter containing two unencrypted CDs containing CPR-numbers and health records for 5.28 residents in Danish municipals between 2010 and 2012 to the Danish statistics agency (Statistics Denmark).&lt;p&gt;Post Danmark (postal service) accidentally delivered the letter to Chinese Visa Application Centre instead.  When the employee responsible for receiving the letter noticed the mistake upon opening, the employee turned the letter with the two CDs to Statistics Denmark.&lt;p&gt;According to the employee&amp;#x27;s story, this was done immediately.  And the investigation team says they have no reason to doubt the validity of her story.&lt;p&gt;To sum up: The investigation team believe that the Chinese Visa Application Centre never actually saw the contents on the CDs.  SSI sent the data unencrypted, and the postal service delivered the letter to the wrong recipient.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Changed wording from blaming the postal service.</text></item><item><author>runesoerensen</author><text>This is ridiculous. It&amp;#x27;s not just Danish personal identification numbers, but &lt;i&gt;ID numbers and health records&lt;/i&gt; for everyone who have lived in Denmark from 2010 through 2012.&lt;p&gt;Quick recap since it&amp;#x27;s in Danish: A danish health authority, SSI, accidentally &lt;i&gt;mailed two CDs&lt;/i&gt; containing &lt;i&gt;unencrypted CPR-numbers and health records for 5.28m residents&lt;/i&gt; to the Chinese Visa Application Office.&lt;p&gt;The Chinese delivered the letter to the intended recipient, Statistics Denmark, another danish government authority.&lt;p&gt;The bubble cushioned mailer containing the CDs had been opened, but regardless the issue of course is the extremely reckless handling of very sensitive information.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Article reporting on this in English &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.thelocal.dk&amp;#x2F;20160720&amp;#x2F;five-million-danish-id-numbers-sent-to-chinese-firm-by-mistake&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.thelocal.dk&amp;#x2F;20160720&amp;#x2F;five-million-danish-id-numbe...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Edit 2: The specification and structure of the data that was sent with these CDs. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;christianpanton&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;755742230044966912&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;christianpanton&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;75574223004496691...&lt;/a&gt; (also in Danish, but this seems to include almost everything; the carelessness in handling this data appears to have been surpassed only by the extent and completeness of it)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>peteretep</author><text>Hi, nice to meet you Johan! Can I get you a drink? Oh, you&amp;#x27;re an electrician? That&amp;#x27;s nice, I sell light fixtures.&lt;p&gt;...&lt;p&gt;Good to see you again Johan! You&amp;#x27;ll never believe, I was down at XYZ Clinic yesterday, and they&amp;#x27;d left your file out!! Careless right? How did you break it to your wife you had herpes? Oh, she didn&amp;#x27;t know?! Man, sorry I mentioned it, I&amp;#x27;ll keep that quiet for sure.&lt;p&gt;...&lt;p&gt;Man, it&amp;#x27;s been a hard month Johan. Sales are down! Hey, you told me you worked at the DaneSecure building right? Oh you didn&amp;#x27;t? Someone else must have told me that. But look, don&amp;#x27;t worry. I can keep secrets!! Look could you do me a favour? I need to know what kind of light fixtures they use at DaneSecure so I can pitch to them. Could you take a look and let me know? I&amp;#x27;d like to know what kind they are, and specifically, how many are installed on Level 7. You know we&amp;#x27;re friends, because you know I can keep my mouth shut.&lt;p&gt;...&lt;p&gt;Johan, we have a problem!!! My boss said that because we&amp;#x27;re Chinese-owned, you telling me about the light-fittings in a classified area is technically passing on state secrets!!! You have a lawyer right? No?! OK, here&amp;#x27;s the plan, don&amp;#x27;t tell anybody, and we&amp;#x27;ll figure a way to keep us both out of jail!&lt;p&gt;...&lt;p&gt;Are you OK Johan? You look kind of pale. You haven&amp;#x27;t been worrying about this all week have you? Oh you have? OK well don&amp;#x27;t worry, I&amp;#x27;ve got a solution. My boss has said he thinks he can stop our corporate lawyers reporting it, and we&amp;#x27;ll both be fine. There&amp;#x27;s a small catch favour he wants from us though. He needs to know the power consumption of the floor to help us tailor our pitch. Do you think you could plug this thing in to a light fixture for me? I think we&amp;#x27;re both going to be fine...&lt;p&gt;...&lt;p&gt;Johan, I have some bad news for you? Remember I said I sold light fixtures? Well that wasn&amp;#x27;t the whole truth...</text></comment>
<story><title>Five million Danish ID numbers sent to Chinese firm by mistake</title><url>http://www.thelocal.dk/20160720/five-million-danish-id-numbers-sent-to-chinese-firm-by-mistake</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>seszett</author><text>Let&amp;#x27;s assume they have it.&lt;p&gt;What kind of interest would you say the Chinese government has in the health records of a few million Danish residents? I don&amp;#x27;t know, maybe it&amp;#x27;s really important, but then maybe it&amp;#x27;s not that critical after all.</text></item><item><author>pilif</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt;  But again there is little to no way to figure out for sure whether the Chinese government has this information&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;assume they have it.</text></item><item><author>Svip</author><text>No long, I&amp;#x27;d imagine.  But again there is little to no way to figure out for sure whether the Chinese government has this information.  The story really highlights the careless handling of data, because the chances of the Chinese government (or any other third part) getting access to these data is way too high.</text></item><item><author>throwanem</author><text>How long does a modern machine need to copy off the contents of a couple of CDs? Were the discs in tamper-evident packages?</text></item><item><author>Svip</author><text>Correction:  SSI sent a letter containing two unencrypted CDs containing CPR-numbers and health records for 5.28 residents in Danish municipals between 2010 and 2012 to the Danish statistics agency (Statistics Denmark).&lt;p&gt;Post Danmark (postal service) accidentally delivered the letter to Chinese Visa Application Centre instead.  When the employee responsible for receiving the letter noticed the mistake upon opening, the employee turned the letter with the two CDs to Statistics Denmark.&lt;p&gt;According to the employee&amp;#x27;s story, this was done immediately.  And the investigation team says they have no reason to doubt the validity of her story.&lt;p&gt;To sum up: The investigation team believe that the Chinese Visa Application Centre never actually saw the contents on the CDs.  SSI sent the data unencrypted, and the postal service delivered the letter to the wrong recipient.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Changed wording from blaming the postal service.</text></item><item><author>runesoerensen</author><text>This is ridiculous. It&amp;#x27;s not just Danish personal identification numbers, but &lt;i&gt;ID numbers and health records&lt;/i&gt; for everyone who have lived in Denmark from 2010 through 2012.&lt;p&gt;Quick recap since it&amp;#x27;s in Danish: A danish health authority, SSI, accidentally &lt;i&gt;mailed two CDs&lt;/i&gt; containing &lt;i&gt;unencrypted CPR-numbers and health records for 5.28m residents&lt;/i&gt; to the Chinese Visa Application Office.&lt;p&gt;The Chinese delivered the letter to the intended recipient, Statistics Denmark, another danish government authority.&lt;p&gt;The bubble cushioned mailer containing the CDs had been opened, but regardless the issue of course is the extremely reckless handling of very sensitive information.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Article reporting on this in English &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.thelocal.dk&amp;#x2F;20160720&amp;#x2F;five-million-danish-id-numbers-sent-to-chinese-firm-by-mistake&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.thelocal.dk&amp;#x2F;20160720&amp;#x2F;five-million-danish-id-numbe...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Edit 2: The specification and structure of the data that was sent with these CDs. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;christianpanton&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;755742230044966912&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;christianpanton&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;75574223004496691...&lt;/a&gt; (also in Danish, but this seems to include almost everything; the carelessness in handling this data appears to have been surpassed only by the extent and completeness of it)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>throwanem</author><text>Probably none, but you don&amp;#x27;t stay a power in the modern world by turning up your nose at any kind of information that comes your way.</text></comment>