There’s nothing like some dramatic numbers to get attention to data breaches. Risk Based Security, Inc. has released their 2017 statistics, and yes, some of the numbers are dramatic. Here are just two snippets from their blog post about the report: There were 5,207 breaches recorded last year, surpassing 2015’s previous high mark by nearly…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
A (Secondary) Education in Data Security
Christina Seda and Peter A. Nelson of Patterson Belknap write: On January 18, 2018, the New York State Education Department (“NYSED”) announced that one of its vendors, Questar Assessment, experienced a data breach resulting in the unauthorized disclosure of personal information from students in five different New York schools. While the data breach reportedly affected…
Trump’s CFPB Chief Pulls Back on Equifax Data Breach Probe: Report
Patrick Rucker reports: Mick Mulvaney, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has pulled back from a full-scale probe of how Equifax Inc. failed to protect the personal data of millions of consumers, according to people familiar with the matter. Equifax (EFX.N) said in September that hackers stole personal data it had collected on some…
SG: PDPC Singapore responds to feedback received in public consultation regarding personal data management
Priyankar Bhunia writes: The PDPC sought views on the relevance of other bases for collecting, using and disclosing personal data and on a proposed mandatory data breach notification regime. The Personal Data Protection Commission of Singapore (PDPC) has released its response to feedback received from a public consultation launched in July 2017 on Approaches to…
Pirate Bay scare: Torrent flaw could let hackers take control of your computer
Dion Dassanayake reports: Pirate Bay users are being warned about a torrent security flaw that could expose your computer to being remotely controlled by cybercriminals. The Pirate Bay fans need to double check which BitTorrent client they are using to manage downloads from the world’s most popular torrent site. If they have the Transmission BitTorrent…
FR: CNIL issues new data security guidelines
On January 23, 2018, the French data protection authority (the CNIL) published new guidelines on the security of personal data (updating its previous security guide published in 2010 available in English) , providing practical recommendations in the form of “Do’s and Dont’s” to help businesses implement appropriate measures to protect personal data in compliance with…