http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081003.AUDIT03/TPStory/National 

The Canadian Press
October 3, 2008

EDMONTON -- Weak computer security across the Alberta government allowed 
sophisticated hackers to worm their way into the system, Auditor-General 
Fred Dunn reported yesterday.

Mr. Dunn says the hackers, possibly criminals from Asia or Eastern 
Europe, left signs that they had been inside Alberta's computer network.

"Footprints were there that people have gone in and looked and seen," he 
told reporters. "We don't know what they did with it, we don't know how 
it was used, but they were there."

Mr. Dunn's latest report warns that health-care records and drivers' 
licence data are not well protected.

"Confidential or sensitive information may be at risk of compromise 
without warning," says the report. "Because information security in the 
government is not consistently enforced, all information assets are 
exposed to unacceptable risk."

Mr. Dunn says his department found that hacking into government 
computers was "easier than it should have been." He says 400 computer 
systems were targeted in his review, but the investigation stopped after 
69 systems were checked.

[...]


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