Joseph Cox reports: A hacker has broken into two consumer spyware companies—firms which sell malware to everyday people, sometimes with the explicit intent of illegally spying on spouses or lovers—and provided a large cache of data to Motherboard. The data includes gigabytes of customer records, apparent business information, and alleged intercepted messages of some people…
Month: February 2018
UK: Former council worker fined for sharing personal information about schoolchildren and parents via Snapchat
From the what-the-HELL-were-they-thinking department: A former local authority education worker who illegally shared personal information about schoolchildren and their parents has been prosecuted. Samira Bouzkraoui, 24, took a screenshot of a council spreadsheet concerning children and their eligibility for free school meals before sending it to the estranged parent of one of the pupils via…
Supreme Court Denies Cert in Attias v. CareFirst
Daniel Kagan of Murtha Cullina cuts to the chase: On February 16, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari to review CareFirst’s appeal of the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit’s decision in Attias v. Carefirst, Inc., 865 F.3d 620 (D.C. Cir. 2017). The D.C. Circuit held that the threat of harm from a data breach…
Higher Ed Users Are Less Susceptible to Phishing Scams
Meghan Bogardus Cortez reports: University end users are pretty good at identifying a scam. Only 10 percent of simulated phishing emails sent to users at education institutions were successful, a new study from Wombat Security Technologies reports. The company monitored tens of millions of simulated phishing attacks sent over the course of a year through…
Ontario Superior Court: Insurer on the hook to defend hospital employee in privacy breach lawsuit
Lyle Adriano reports: The Ontario Superior Court has ruled that an insurance company is obligated to defend a hospital employee against a privacy breach lawsuit by a former patient. In the case Oliveira v. Aviva Canada Inc., the ex-patient alleged that the employee – who is not involved in providing care to the patient –…
Punjab National Bank data breach; 10,000 credit and debit cards and associated details affected: Report
Riddhi Mukherjee reports: It turns out that Punjab National Bank (PNB), which is currently reeling under the Nirav Modi fraud case, had also suffered a data breach, which affected 10,000 credit and debit card customers, reports Asia Times. The leaked data includes customer names, expiry dates of cards, personal ID numbers and CVV numbers. This data…