K.C. Vijayan reports: The High Court has ruled in a novel case that confidential documents hacked from a computer and posted online remain confidential despite being in the public domain. The court found in the test case that e-mails between lawyer and client leaked online by a third party but obtained by the defence was…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
California Attorney General Releases Data Breach Report; Over 49 Million Records of Californians’ Personal Information Put at Risk in Last Four Years
Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today addressed the Stanford Cyber Initiative to release a comprehensive report detailing the nature of data breaches reported to her office over the past four years. The report found that between 2012 and 2015, there were 657 data breaches, which compromised over 49 million records of Californians’ personal information. The…
Hack by Anonymous created hassles for hospital patients during Flint water crisis
I don’t care WHO you are or what your cause it. Stop hacking hospitals in ways that interfere with or delay – in any way – patient care. Just stop it. Gary Ridley reports that Anonymous is being blamed for one such interruption: A cyber attack by the online “hacktivist” group Anonymous that was intended as…
Commenters on Henry Schein consent order: FTC was too lenient
Public comments on the consent order in FTC v. Henry Schein Practice Solutions are now available. The FTC will be responding to commenters, but I wanted to note one particular point raised by commenter because I hadn’t considered it when I filed my complaint with the FTC, and I think the commenters are right. Note that I did not submit…
More than 10,000 Chinese computers hacked in a year; websites vulnerable
Xinhua reports: More than 10,000 computers in China were attacked by domestic and overseas hackers between December 2014 and November 2015, a cybersecurity firm has detected. The SkyEye Lab, run by Chinese cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360, said 29 hacker organizations from home and abroad launched the attacks. Read more on Xinhua. Focusing on another part…
Departing Employee Taking Data from “Restricted” but Unsecured Folder Doesn’t Violate CFAA
Shawn E. Tuma writes: When an employer intends to keep a network folder restricted from employees, but fails to (1) objectively communicate this intention or (2) secure the folder from general access, an employee who accesses the folder and takes data from it does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), even if he does…