So…. did The BBC break the law when it bought and implemented a 22,000-strong botnet as part of its Click news reporting? Nick Farrell of IT Examiner reports that Sophos’ Graeme Cluely suggests that they did because the UK Computer Misuse Act makes it an offense in the United Kingdom to access another person’s computer,…
Category: Business Sector
Comcast passwords leaked onto the Web
Elinor Mills reports: Thousands of user names and passwords for Comcast customers was removed from document sharing Web site Scribd on Monday, two months after it was posted there. Scribd removed the list of more than 8,000 passwords and user names after being contacted by Brad Stone at The New York Times. Stone wrote that…
Japanese court orders ISP to reveal file-leaker’s ID
From Daily Yomiuri Online: The Tokyo District Court has ordered an Internet service provider to reveal the name and address of a person who used file-swapping software to spread leaked private information on the Internet of about 110,000 Kanagawa prefectural high school students in fiscal 2006, it has been learned. IBM Japan Ltd., which had…
WA: Contest winners’ data possibly compromised
Jesse Jones of King 5 News reports that a server containing personal information on winners of radio contests at Fisher Broadcasting was hacked. No additional details were provided, so if any reader has more info or a copy of the notification letter, please send it to breaches[at]databreaches.net
Chicago Fire Department contractor’s laptop stolen (updated)
The Dezonia Group handles billing people for the Chicago Fire Department’s ambulance service. Dana Koslov of CBS in Chicago reports that the contractor reported that an employee’s laptop stolen six weeks ago contained the names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of thousands of people who used the ambulance service in the past two years. Update…
Nature security breach prompts password reset
John Leyden of The Register reports: The website of science journal Nature has suffered a security breach that resulted in the potential exposure of users’ login credentials. The login credentials were stored in an encrypted form, making them hard to extract. But Nature.com has still opted to reset the passwords of affected users, as a…