Tim Greene reports: Cyber attacks are becoming more frequent and severe, and the vast majority of businesses have suffered at least one data breach in the past year, a Ponemon Institute survey says. According to the survey, 77% of respondents say attacks have been more severe or more difficult to prevent over the past 12…
Author: Dissent
Arizona Department of Public Safety hacked; LulzSec starts to reveal data reportedly acquired
With each day, LulzSec seem more and more to be “hactivists.” Today, they revealed what seems clearly to be a politically motivated hack/compromise. From their press release: We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement. We are targeting AZDPS specifically because…
Postal Inspectors Probe Gold Coin Purchases Made With Stolen American Express Cards
A reader sent along this item from CoinWeek, noting the interesting references to tampering with AmEx security: U.S. Postal Service inspectors are investigating the fraudulent use of stolen American Express credit cards to purchase apparently tens of thousands of dollars of gold coins. “The orders are placed by phone, often for $10,000 to $20,000 worth…
Spitler pleads guilty to his part in hacking 120,000 iPad accounts
Jerry DeMarco reports: A computer hacker who helped write the malicious code behind a breach of AT&T’s computer servers admitted today that he conspired with another Internet “troll” to hack into the servers, steal information from “the most exclusive list of [iPad subscribers] on the planet,” and then boast about it online. In pleading guilty…
IMS v. Sorrell: Pharmaceutical Speech Protected by Court – Opinion Analysis
Law prof Ruthann Robson comments on the Supreme Court’s decision in IMS v. Sorrell: As expected from the oral argument in April, the Court’s opinion today in IMS v. Sorrell finds Vermont’s statute prohibiting the practices that allow pharmaceutical detailing to be unconstitutional. The opinions can be said to answer this query: When is a commercial speech regulation…
Supreme Court strikes down Vermont's prescription data-mining law
Well, a lot of erudite lawyers saw this one coming, but it’s still disappointing that Vermont’s data-mining law has been struck down. Howard Bashman announced the bad news: Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court in Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., No. 10-779. Justice Breyer issued a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Ginsburg and Kagan joined. You…