So Harvard gets hacked and dozens of media outlets dutifully headline it. But when millions of students, faculty, and staff at Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) had their hacked personal and financial information up for sale after MCCCD failed to properly secure their network following an earlier hack, most media outlets never even mentioned it – and…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
UK: Privacy watchdog ICO slashes its fines in half
Kat Hall reports: The total value of fines issued by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office has halved compared with last year – despite the watchdog receiving roughly the same number of complaints about data protection. In 2014/15, the ICO issued £1.1m in so-called civil monetary penalties, £386,000 of which were for companies behind nuisance calls…
FTC Kicks Off “Start With Security” Business Education Initiative
The Federal Trade Commission is expanding its efforts to help businesses protect consumers’ information through a new initiative that will provide them with more information on data security. Called “Start With Security,” the initiative includes new guidance for businesses that draws on the lessons learned in the more than 50 data security cases brought by the FTC…
Top VPNs Leak Sensitive User Information – Report
Phil Muncaster reports: New research has revealed that 14 of the world’s most popular VPN services leak sensitive customer data – in many cases because they don’t yet protect IPv6 traffic. Researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and the University of Rome launched the findings in a paper at the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium today….
Windows 10 will share your Wi-Fi password with your friends’ friends
Simon Rockman reports: A Windows 10 feature, Wi-Fi Sense, smells like a significant security risk: it shares access to password-protected Wi-Fi networks with the user’s contacts. So giving a wireless password to one person grants access to everyone who knows them. […] Wi-Fi Sense doesn’t reveal the password to your family, friends, acquaintances, and the chap…
One man emailed 97,931 people to tell them their passwords had been stolen
What happens when a do-gooder/altruistic person decides to try to warn people that their password has been stolen and posted on the Internet? Not much, it seems. Mark Stockley reports the results of “Atechdad’s” efforts: Whatever the reason, Atechdad’s 97,931 good intentions were just no match for the yawning, black hole of apathy and cynicism…