Aaaaaand our privacy protections just took a step backwards. Jim Pazzanghera reports: The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday voted to halt an Internet privacy rule that would have imposed data security requirements on broadband providers. The move, by a 2-1 vote, came after the agency’s new Republican chairman, Ajit Pai, indicated last week that he opposed the provision…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Breaking Baxter: 50 Bugs Show Robots Might Be Super Vulnerable To Cyberattack
Thomas Fox-Brewster reports: Are the human gods creating our future robot overlords bestowing their creations with solid cybersecurity? A pair of hackers think not. The researchers, from security consultancy IOActive, claimed Wednesday to have found a whopping 50 vulnerabilities across components of major home and industrial robots. If exploited, those weaknesses could allow remote control of the machines…
12.6 million cases of personal information leaked in Japan in 2016, survey shows
Kyodo News reports: Some 12.6 million cases involving the leak of personal information were confirmed or suspected in the nation last year due to cyberattacks against companies and other entities, a Kyodo News survey showed Monday, affecting roughly 1 in 10 people. The figure marked a sixfold increase from the 2.07 million cases in 2015,…
Chicago Public Schools exposed confidential student information – again!
Lauren FitzPatrick reports: Confidential information about Chicago Public Schools students — including medical conditions and dates of birth — was kept on unsecured web documents that anyone could call up despite laws and CPS rules that are supposed to safeguard children’s privacy. Some of the personal, identifiable information involved requests for certain ongoing nursing services…
Aadhaar biometric data breaches trigger privacy concerns
Suranjana Roy, Komal Gupta, and Apurva Vishwanath report: A case of Aadhaar data breach has caused privacy concerns and raised questions over the security of biometric data in possession of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). […] The UIDAI filed a police complaint on 15 February against Axis Bank Ltd, business correspondent Suvidhaa Infoserve…
Yahoo responds to Senators’ questions about breaches
Yahoo has responded to the letter sent by Republican Senators John Thune, Commerce Committee Chairman, and Jerry Moran, Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security Subcommittee Chairman. The letter had been sent because the senators felt they weren’t getting enough cooperation from the firm. You can read Yahoo’s response here (pdf). See what you think. The firm…