After the Equifax data breach, some people are considering placing a fraud alert, freeze, or lock on their credit file to help prevent identity thieves from opening new accounts in their name. To help consumers decide on a course of action, a Federal Trade Commission blog post, Fraud alert, freeze or lock after Equifax? FAQs,…
Month: December 2017
U.S. claims North Korea was responsible for WannaCry
Thomas P. Bossert, who is an assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, writes: Cybersecurity isn’t easy, but simple principles still apply. Accountability is one, cooperation another. They are the cornerstones of security and resilience in any society. In furtherance of both, and after careful investigation, the U.S. today publicly attributes the massive “WannaCry”…
(Another) Federal Data Breach Notification Law Introduced in Congress
Gregory Bautista, Jeremy T. Merkel, and Alex Moh of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP write: Senate Democrats have introduced a third iteration of a federal data breach notification bill, the Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2017 (S.B. 2179). If passed into law, this bill would replace the patchwork of 48 separate state breach notification…
Air Force Hackers Earn Biggest Government Bug Bounty Ever
Kate Conger reports: A pair of hackers discovered a vulnerability in Air Force software that allowed them to gain access to the Department of Defense’s unclassified network—a find that earned them more than $10,000, the largest payout ever in a government bug bounty program. Read more on Gizmodo.
Former hotel clerk arrested for profiting from guests’ info
KTBS reports: A former hotel clerk was arrested for using information obtained through his job to fraudulently rent rooms and receive food deliveries, said Sheriff Steve Prator. Between April and June 2017, Delvin Darrell Raphiel, 28, used a childhood friend’s personal information to set up a hotel honors account through which he reserved rooms at…
LabMD Appeal Has Privacy World Waiting
Craig A. Newman writes: It is the case that could define the scope of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s authority in data security. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit heard argument six months ago in LabMD, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission. As readers of this blog know, the case turns on what…