Bloomberg reports: Google told staff on Monday that it fired four employees for what the company called “clear and repeated violations” of its data-security policies. Alphabet Inc.’s Google sent an email describing the decision to employees titled “Securing our data,” according to a copy of the document obtained by Bloomberg News. The company confirmed the…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
District Court (NY) Says It’s Powerless to Approve Class Settlement Arising Out of Data Breach Due to Lack of Art. III Cognizable Injury
Scott J. Hyman of Severson & Werson PC writes: In Steven v. Carlos Lopez & Assocs., No. 18-CV-6500 (JMF), 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 203621 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 22, 2019), Judge Furman declined to approve settlement of a data breach class due to the absence of Art. III standing. From the opinion: In June 2018, an employee…
Yet another city reports a Click2Gov breach
Another city has reported a breach involving Click2Gov software by CentralSquare Technologies. WTVY reports Dothan, Alabama has joined more than four dozen other cities using Click2Gov that have experienced breaches involving payment card data of residents using online payment portals: “It has come to the City of Dothan’s attention that CentralSquare, the third-party processor of…
Veterans Affairs put millions of people at risk of identify theft, audit finds
Eric Yoder reports: The Veterans Affairs Department, while responding to requests for records on veterans’ benefits claims, “put millions of people at risk of identity theft” by not deleting personally identifying information on other people from those records, an audit has found. That information included names and Social Security numbers of people such as other…
A Notorious Iranian Hacking Crew Is Targeting Industrial Control Systems
Andy Greenberg reports: Iranian hackers have carried out some of the most disruptive acts of digital sabotage of the last decade, wiping entire computer networks in waves of cyberattacks across the Middle East and occasionally even the US. But now one of Iran’s most active hacker groups appears to have shifted focus. Rather than just standard…
Physical and cyber threats collide in data theft incidents at N.J. businesses
Joel Griffin reports: For years, cybersecurity experts have warned about the lengths that criminals will go to in gaining access to the network of their intended victim, including exploiting flaws in an organization’s physical security program to achieve their goals. Some security practitioners brushed aside these concerns convinced that these so-called “hackers,” often portrayed as…