Paul Smith reports: The Australian Bankers Association has defended the strength of IT security processes in place across Australia’s banking system following the revelation that Reserve Bank of Australia systems had been compromised by China-based hackers. However, security experts said the incident highlighted the need for Australian data breach notification laws to be tightened to force…
Month: March 2013
IE: Insurer ordered to pay costs in data breach case
Insurance company FBD has been ordered to pay High Court costs to a man following a case in which he claimed his data protection rights had been breached. The High Court last week vacated the Circuit Court award of €15,000 in damages to Michael Collins in March 2012 but did rule that there had been…
General Services Administration discloses vulnerability; starts notifying those potentially affected
When I first saw reference to this vulnerability report, I thought it was a non-U.S. situation. But then I realized it was our government. Oops! Posted on the GSA’s web site, yesterday: System for Award Management Security Vulnerability SAM SECURITY ISSUE March 2013 Recently, U.S. GSA officials identified a security vulnerability in the System for…
Media should not have quoted from psychologist's letter – OpEd
On March 13, the Iowa City Press-Citizen published a front-page story that quoted from a psychologist’s letter about a patient seeking a gun permit. That patient was subsequently involved in a standoff with police in which he shot and injured three North Liberty police officers, and he was shot and killed by police. In response to…
More problems for Subway: Feds charge two men in plot to sell hacked Subway gift cards worth $40,000
Cyrus Farivar reports that Subway, who had previous hacking problems, has had other problems: Two California men were charged in a case involving hacking point-of-sale (POS) computers at various Subway restaurants in a newly unsealed indictment on Friday in Boston. The two suspects are Shahin Abdollahi, aka “Sean Holdt,” and Jeffrey Thomas Wilkinson, both of…
Lawmakers: Tougher computer hacking laws may be needed
Grant Gross reports: Congress may need to create stiffer penalties for criminal computer hacking to deter the growing number of attacks on U.S. government agencies and businesses, some lawmakers said Wednesday. Congress may revisit the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the oft-amended law first passed in 1984, in an effort to counter widespread cyberattacks…