CP24 reports that the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party’s internal database was locked up by a ransomware attack in early November. The incident is first being acknowledged now, it seems. The database contains the names, phone numbers and other personal information of over a million eligible voters in the province, as well as party supporters, donors…
Month: January 2018
University of Baltimore exposed student identity information for more than three years: auditors (UPDATED)
Jan. 29 – please see update under this post. Meredith Cohn reports on a breach involving University of Baltimore student data: The University of Baltimore has added protections to personal student data that officials had left unsecured possibly for years, according to a state audit released this month. The information on 117,793 students was kept…
Hacking and phishing accounted for 75% of breaches reported to North Carolina in 2017
North Carolina issued a Security Breach Report for 2017. From the Executive Summary: This report provides a summary and discussion of the 1,022 data breaches reported to the North Carolina Department of Justice (NCDOJ) between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017. Under North Carolina law, businesses and state and local governments are required to…
Conspirator Who Hacked Mortgage Brokers Sentenced in Computer Hacking and Wire Fraud Scheme
From a January 19 press release from DOJ: Victor Alejandro Fernandez was sentenced in federal court today to 129 months in custody for his involvement in a conspiracy to steal and misuse mortgage customers’ sensitive personal information. Fernandez was charged along with Jason Ray Bailey, John Gordon Baden and Joel Nava with conspiracy to commit…
Harris County tightens security after almost losing $900K in phishing attack
Mihir Zaveri reports: On Sept. 21, not three weeks after Houston was ravaged by Hurricane Harvey, the Harris County auditor’s office received an email from someone named Fiona Chambers who presented herself as an accountant with D&W Contractors, Inc. The contractor was repairing a Harvey-damaged parking lot, cleaning up debris and building a road for…
Bill updates Iowa’s data security protections
Erin Jordan reports: Data security breaches at big corporations, including Equifax and Target, spurred the Iowa Attorney General’s Office to seek changes to Iowa law to further protect consumers. House Study Bill 526, discussed in a Judiciary subcommittee Tuesday, would update Iowa’s data breach notification act, which requires businesses, nonprofits and other entities hit by…