Elizabeth Brico reports: When Jayne checked her email on the morning of February 13, she didn’t expect to find anything particularly exciting. The 34-year-old, who asked her real name be withheld out of fear that speaking out could affect her housing benefits, was enjoying a rare moment of relative peace on a snow day in…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Hackers Love to Strike on Saturday – Redscan report
Mathew J. Schwartz reports: If you had to guess what day of the week a hacker will hit your organization, the answer might seem obvious: Hackers prefer to strike on Saturday. Research conducted by managed security service provider Redscan confirms it. The firm filed a freedom of information request with the U.K.’s privacy watchdog, seeking…
US Healthcare institutions are vulnerable to phishing attacks: Survey
CISOMag reports on a recent survey and report, Assessment of Employee Susceptibility to Phishing Attacks at US Health Care Institutions, authored by Dr. William Gordon and colleagues. Not surprisingly, the survey found that the healthcare sector was susceptible to phishing attacks. How susceptible, you wonder? William specified that when the researchers sent simulated phishing emails,…
Businesses lag on data breach response times
I’ve recently commented a few times on delays to notification in the healthcare sector. Out-Law.com has a piece on data breach response times in the U.K. that provides some useful comparisons. Businesses in the UK took an average of 21 days to report personal data breaches they had identified to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)…
Stolen N.W.T. laptop was among dozens that were unencrypted and handed out to unsuspecting staff anyway
This is Part 3 of a 3-part series on a stolen laptop. If you missed the earlier parts, you can find them here: Part 1 and Part 2. Priscilla Hwang reports: The N.W.T. government’s information technology division knew a set of laptops were “very difficult” to encrypt, but still handed it out for government staff…
MA: Release of employees’ partial Social Security numbers troubles Worcester teachers, School Committee members
Scott O’Connell reports: Teachers and School Committee members are looking for answers from the School Department in the wake of the district’s release of personal information for thousands of school employees to a testing company last year. According to Worcester Superintendent Maureen Binienda, the district’s IT department opted to use the last four digits of…