There has been another data breach of firearms owners’ information, and it looks like there has been a cover-up as well. Newshub reports:
Newshub can reveal firearms licences were among the personal data breached in the massive Tuia250 digital security failure and the Government kept it secret.
The Opposition is accusing the Prime Minister of a cover-up but Jacinda Ardern’s Ministry for Culture and Heritage denies it was hiding anything from the public.
It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime commemorating 250 years since the first encounters between Maori and Pakeha. But before the journey even began, Tuia250 was marred by a massive Government security breach in August 2019.
It was revealed hundreds of personal documents were left online – free for the taking. And Newshub has uncovered one form of ID the Government did not tell the public about – gun licences.
The Police breached the privacy of thousands of firearms owners, and now the Ministry for Culture and Heritage has done the same. The modus operandi when caught is the same. Deny, deny, deny.
National MP Dr Shane Reti told Newshub: “Jacinda Ardern’s ministry knew the firearms licences had been stolen within 24 hours of the data breach but right now to today they haven’t brought that into the public domain.“
When the breach occurred, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage released a list of all forms of identification that were accessible, including passports, birth certificates, drivers licences, school IDs and visas.
But information obtained by Newshub under the Official Information Act shows firearms licences were also breached, which the Government neglected to mention.
“That’s not good,” Dr Reti said. “Why was it kept secret?”
Why indeed?
The Prime Minister told Newshub: “Ultimately, we had to manage that the breach itself was very problematic.”
The National Party says the timing is fishy.
“I think it’s because Jacinda Ardern knew a gun register was going to be announced in three weeks’ time and she didn’t want to look unreliable or incompetent,” Dr Reti said.
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage refused Newshub’s repeated requests for an interview over the course of a week and instead released a statement.
Newshub
It looks like the ministry has adopted a run and hide policy. The government can no longer be trusted with firearms licence information. It’s a clown show.
COLFO isn’t impressed and neither am I.
GOVERNMENT CAN’T BE TRUSTED WITH FIREARMS LICENCE DATA
WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASERevelations that firearms licences were included in the Ministry of Culture and Heritage’s Tuia250 data breach has further eroded trust with licenced firearms owners.
Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) spokesperson Nicole McKee says:“This latest revelation shows yet another government privacy breach putting licenced firearms owners and their families at risk.
“What’s more intolerable is that it looks like the Ministry of Culture was more concerned with saving the government from embarrassment than disclosing the nature of the breach to the public.”
McKee says that this is the type of data breach licenced firearms owners fear with the proposed firearms register.
“In the space of a few months we have seen multiple breaches of licenced firearms owners’ privacy. First with the Police firearms notification system and now with Tuia250.
“This culture of privacy breaches shows that the government’s proposed firearms register will be a danger to the licenced firearms community.”
COLFO
Plans for a gun register need to be shelved. It is clear that neither the government, the Police nor any of their IT providers can be trusted to protect the information of licenced firearms owners.
Will the government be offering grants to upgrade security and safes or assist with installing security cameras to help protect licenced firearms owners? I won’t hold my breath waiting for a response.
A great many firearms owners no longer have confidence in the Police as our trust in them has been abused. We have been scapegoated by this government and blamed for the actions of one lunatic. The people responsible for allowing a fresh off the boat immigrant to obtain a firearms licence without an interview in person are the ones now trying to bring in a register. The Police approved this guy in record timing and then approved him buying large amounts of ammunition and firearms over the internet. They are the ones who have also breached the privacy of gun owners. So tell me again, why it is our fault?
There is going to have to be a drastic altering of systemic bad behaviour in the Police before they can even start to gain back our trust, and this latest episode just reinforces the lack of trust in the government and agents of the government like the Police.
The Peelian principles of policing have been abrogated by successive governments and Commissioners. We no longer have policing by consent; rather we now have policing by force, and that, my friends, is the rather slippery slope we find ourselves on. A proper police service is respected, not feared. Unfortunately, we have slipped away from Peelian principles and now are policed increasingly by an armed and jack-booted force.
The Armed Response Teams were a fraud perpetrated on the citizenry and have routinely extended outside their stated scope. Police are now routinely armed, ironically with the precise weaponry they disarmed the population of. If semi-automatic firearms are no longer on the streets, as is claimed by the Police Minister Stuart Nash, then why do Police need semi-automatic firearms themselves? In court, it isn’t a defence to shoot an intruder who is armed with a knife. The courts and the law say force used to defend oneself should be proportionate. Again, why do the Police need the weapons they have?
When you add the loss of Peelian principles and add in inept, and in some cases deliberate criminal data breaches, then you can see why the firearms community have not only lost confidence in Police but are now openly hostile to them. When you’ve lost the support of the good guys, you’ve lost.