New WFP 'inadvertent' data breach leaks executive payroll information

WFP's promotional stand for its SCOPE system

 ROME – The World Food Programme said Friday it "inadvertently" shared the payslip information of as many as 126 employees working at WFP headquarters -- including information about the sky high salaries of several well-heeled senior executives -- by email with them in the latest in a series of data breaches at the UN agency in recent years.

 A WFP spokesperson told Italian Insider that “on June 26, WFP identified an incident in which the payslip information of 126 employees was inadvertently sent by email to the same group of 126 WFP colleagues.”

 “The incident was caused by a manual error with the email distribution system that automatically sent out June payslips for HQ payroll,” the spokesperson said.

 “The mistake was detected quickly, and action was taken immediately to resolve the issue.”

 “WFP takes the privacy and data security of its employees very seriously and steps have already been put in place to prevent similar incidents in the future.”

  An internal audit of WFP beneficiary management as long ago as 2017 found a litany of data protection failings across the UN agency’s digital and paper-based systems. WFP handles huge amounts of personal data without proper safeguards, according to the review. The audit said “major improvement” was needed to reduce risks in systems that powered aid for over 82 million people in 2016.

 In 2019 the World Food Programme’s announcement of a dlrs 45 million partnership with the CIA-backed algorithmic intelligence firm Palantir sparked a firestorm of criticism. 

 Another internal WFP audit last year said "Breaches in privacy could have profound consequences for individual beneficiaries or beneficiary communities and impact WFP's mission objectives."

 WFP said last year that "based on the results of the audit, the Office of Internal Audit has come to an overall conclusion of major improvement needed."

 jf

 

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A quite harmless genuine mistake, with some 5-8 year old 'news' added. What is the value of this article ?

Well, with respect it doesn’t need the brains of an archbishop to see why this is important
If it was your payroll information you might not be happy for 125 colleagues to know how much you are overpaid or underpaid … more seriously Wfp holds a lot of sensitive information about for example ethnic minorities in African countries that could be used irresponsibly if leaked … such a wealthy agency should not make such mistakes … Ed