Tag Archives: Data Breach

U.S. charges 4 members of Chinese military in Equifax breach

Feb. 10, 2020 – Associated Press Four members of the Chinese military have been charged with breaking into the networks of the Equifax credit reporting firm and stealing the personal information of tens of millions of Americans, the Justice Department said Monday, blaming Beijing for one of … Read More ›

Hotels In 10 States And DC May Have Been Hit By Hackers

by Associated Press, The Big Story

Computer screen data

The affected California hotels, it said, are the Westin Pasadena, Renaissance San Diego Downtown Hotel, San Diego Marriott La Jolla, Hyatt Centric Santa Barbara and Le Meridien San Francisco. Read More ›

Why A Staggering Number Of Americans Have Stopped Using The Internet The Way They Used To

by Andrea Peterson, Washington Post

Nearly one in two Internet users say privacy and security concerns have now stopped them from doing basic things online — such as posting to social networks, expressing opinions in forums or even buying things from websites, according to a new government survey released Friday. … When asked to list their biggest concerns, nearly two out of three respondents cited identity theft, while nearly half brought up credit card or banking fraud. About one in five listed data collection by the government. Read More ›

The Risk On Your Wrist: Are Hackers Targeting Your Wearables Data?

by Donal Power, ReadWrite.com

Fitbits from Samsung Creative Commons feed

“Health care providers and health plans have a gold mine of information that criminals can monetize – such as SSNs, health insurance information, and general health information,” [said an attorney focused on privacy and data protection]. … “The most concerning finding was to see that hacking/phishing/malware was the leading cause of incidents last year, especially the increase we saw in health care incidents,” [she] said. “We could feel the tide begin to turn in 2014, which continued into 2015. However, with the number of incidents we handle, it was surprising to see that was the leading cause.” Read More ›

What’s Our Health Data Worth?

by Jerry Beilinson, Consumer Reports

Runner apps

Medical records shared among doctors and hospitals are covered by HIPAA, the medical privacy law, but data shared among app developers, financial firms, and others is unregulated. … Americans are worried about how health data of all kinds is shared, according to Consumer Reports’ research conducted in 2015. Nearly everyone surveyed – 91 percent – agreed that their consent should be required whenever health information is shared. And 45 percent … found it “creepy” when an ad targeting their medical conditions popped up in a web browser. Read More ›

The Conflict Between Apple And The FBI Has A Long History – And Your Privacy Is At Stake

by Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times

American consumers are becoming more sensitive to the potential for technological invasions of their privacy. Revelations of government spying on phone conversations, made by whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden, and of prosecutors’ overreaching have sharpened the tech community’s sense that weakened security threatens the privacy of the average citizen more than it aids law-enforcement—and also sharpened suspicions of government motivations. Read More ›

ID Theft Puts Privacy And Financial Security Of Medical Patients, Taxpayers – Even Children – At Risk

ID thief runs out of laptop screen

There were 12.7 million adult victims of identity theft nationwide in 2014, including over 1.5 million in California, according to the California Attorney General’s Office. “My educated guess is that nearly every adult in the U.S. has been affected by at least one breach involving their Social Security number and/or sensitive personal financial information. Most people have likely been affected by more than one breach,” said Beth Givens, Executive Director of the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Givens predicts health care institution breaches will continue to be big stories in 2016. Other likely targets are educational institutions and government agencies. Read More ›

Something New to Worry About: Connected Toy Security

by Bree Fowler, Associated Press

boy with stuffed toys reading

Rapid7 researchers examined the Fisher Price Smart Toy, an interactive stuffed animal for children aged 3 to 8 that connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi. They also took a look at HereO, a GPS smartwatch that allows parents to track their child’s location. In both cases, they found that the toys failed to safeguard children’s information such as their names and in the case of the watch, their location, storing it on remote servers in such a way that unauthorized people could access it by masquerading as legitimate users. … Toy-related security problems began to grab headlines late last year. Read More ›

Group Behind Golden Nugget Casinos, Rainforest Cafe, And More Releases List Of Locations Hit By Data Breach

by Mary Beth Quirk, Consumerist

Computer screen data

Late last year, Landry’s Inc., a restaurant conglomerate with over 500 locations, confirmed that it had been hit by a credit card data breach. At the time, the group didn’t confirm how many locations were affected. … The company manages dozens of chains like Morton’s Steakhouse, McCormick & Schmick’s, and the Rainforest Cafe, as well as several hotels, resorts, and casinos, including the Golden Nugget chain. Read More ›

At Berkeley, A New Digital Privacy Protest

by Steve Lohr, New York Times

UC Berkeley tower

Under a program initiated by [UC President Janet] Napolitano, the former secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, the university system began installing hardware and software in its data centers that would monitor patterns of digital traffic, like what websites are being visited by faculty and students, or telltale signs of cyber intruders. … The roots of the dispute stretch back to the attack disclosed last July at the UCLA Health System, which potentially put the private information of 4.5 million patients at risk. Read More ›

Hard Drives Holding Health Data Missing At Medical Insurer

by Chris Rauber, San Francisco Business Times

The latest in a series of huge data losses in the health care realm — health insurer Centene’s loss of six hard drives containing personal information on 950,000 enrollees — raises more questions about the security of health data that consumers entrust to insurance companies, hospital systems, Medicare, Medicaid and other big players. … Confidential health care data can sell in murky portions of the Internet for $10 to $50 per record — far more than the roughly $1 a simple credit-card number is worth. Medicare records are even more valuable, … and can sell for as much as $470 per record. Read More ›

Wendy’s Probes Reports Of Credit Card Breach

by Brian Krebs, KrebsOnSecurity

Wendy’s, the nationwide chain of fast-food restaurants, says it is investigating claims of a possible credit card breach at some locations. The acknowledgment comes in response to questions from KrebsOnSecurity about banking industry sources who discovered a pattern of fraud on cards that were all recently used at various Wendy’s locations.
Bob Bertini, spokesperson for the Dublin, Ohio-based restauranteur, said the company began receiving reports earlier this month from its payment industry contacts about a potential breach and that Wendy’s has hired a security firm to investigate the claims. Read More ›

FTC Is Falling Short In Protecting Consumers’ Data Used By Businesses

by David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times

In California, businesses are required to report a data breach only if it’s “reasonably believed” that unencrypted data has fallen into the hands of hackers. Since 2005, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, nearly 896 million consumer records have been put at risk by more than 4,700 known data breaches. The actual number of breaches, said Beth Givens, the advocacy group’s executive director, “is almost certainly much higher but never were reported.” The FTC has asked Congress for more authority to regulate privacy matters. So far, Congress has ignored the agency’s requests. Read More ›

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