February 2, 2010 By News Report
A "serious breach" of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission that occurred last week likely originated in China, the commission's administrator told The Des Moines Register newspaper.
According to a story published by the newspaper on Tuesday, Feb. 2, the personal information of about 80,000 people -- including names, Social Security numbers, home addresses and dates of birth -- was breached from a licensing database housed on a computer system operated by the commission, which regulates gambling at racetracks and on boats.
"The compromise took place January 26 when the state firewall functionality was circumvented due to network routing changes and a licensing database was breached," according to a statement posted on the commission's Web site. The commission said it was unaware of any instances of identity theft as a result of the breach.
A forensic analysis of the breach pinpoints China as the probable origin. The country has been suspected of increasingly using cyber-espionage to access sensitive information in the U.S. and elsewhere.
This Digital Communities white paper highlights discussions with IT officials in four counties that have adopted shared services models. Our aim was to learn about the obstacles these governments have faced when it comes to shared services and what it takes to overcome those roadblocks. We also spoke with several members of the IT industry who have thought long and hard about these issues. The paper offers some best practices for shared government-to-government services, but also points out challenges that government and industry still must overcome before this model gains widespread adoption.
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