Susan Landau writes: For decades the theft of private individuals’ data has been treated as an annoyance. Activist state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission have pursued cases, but U.S. laws fail to treat theft of personal data as a serious crime in itself. The indictment detailing Russian activity during the 2016 presidential campaign…
Category: U.S.
University of Alaska data breach affects employees, students
KTVA reports: A data breach at the University of Alaska has affected dozens of current and former employees and students according to university officials, who say action is being taken on the matter. According to a UA statement, word first reached security officials when users started reporting “an inability to access their password-protected Alaska.edu accounts.”…
Sensitive info may be compromised after City of Houston employee’s laptop stolen
KHOU reports: Information about City of Houston employees’ health insurance may have been compromised after an employee’s laptop computer was stolen. City officials say the laptop was stolen from the employee’s car on Feb. 2. They say the password-protected computer may have contained city employees’ records, including names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers…
Florida school district seeking settlement with W-2 phishing data breach victims
Herald Tribune reports: On Tuesday, School District of Manatee County officials will ask the school board to approve a $300,000 settlement to a class action lawsuit being brought by school district employees who say they suffered damages from a massive data breach last January. On Jan. 26, 2017 a payroll employee responded to an email…
SamSam ransomware infects Colorado Department of Transportation
Luana Pascu reports: SamSam ransomware is back and the Colorado Department of Transportation is its most recent victim. More than 2,000 agency computers had to be shut down on Feb 21 to prevent the ransomware from spreading across the entire infrastructure. According to CBS local news, the critical systems used to manage road traffic and…
Bitcoin Exchange Admin Charged for Lying About Hack
Catalin Cimpanu reports: US authorities have arrested a Texas man who founded two Bitcoin-related platforms that got hacked. Officials charged the on accusations of lying to Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) officials in the subsequent investigation. The accused is Jon “Ukyo” Montroll, a resident of Saginaw, Texas, and founder of WeExchange a Bitcoin wallet and exchange…