Dennis Wagner reports: In spring 2008, FBI agents were struggling to identify a criminal who electronically filed hundreds of fraudulent tax returns, ripping off the federal government for more than $3 million. Investigators and informants started referring to their phantom bad guy as “the Hacker.” Prosecutors persuaded a federal grand jury in Arizona to secretly…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Why Canada’s Privacy Commissioner and CRTC should heed PIAC/CAC’s recommendations about Bell’s “Relevant Ads Program”
This post originally appeared on PogoWasRight.org. I am cross-posting it here because I think NullCrew’s hack should inform policy decisions and public debate about a program of Bell’s that involves a lot of sharing of consumers’ personal information with “affiliates.” Bell (BCE, Bell Canada, Bell Mobility, Bell Aliant and their affiliates) believes it is engaging…
Target breach happened because of a basic network segmentation error
Following up on Brian Kreb’s report that attackers were able to get to Target’s payment card system after compromising the login credentials of HVAC contractor Fazio Mechanical Services,, Jaikumar Vijayan gets responses and comments from several experts on what appears to be Target’s failure to properly segment its network. You can read his article on Computerworld.
Pointer: Company Chosen To Help Target, Neiman Marcus Customers Has Own Lengthy History Of Data Breaches
idRADAR has a lengthy piece on Experian’s data security breaches. The story, by Jeanne Price, includes references DataLossDB.org’s compilation of reports as well as this site’s coverage and the complaint I filed in my individual capacity against Experian with the FTC over their numerous breaches. You can read her report here.
Industries dodge breach blame
Associated Press reports: Banks and big retailers are locked in a debate over the breach of consumer data that gripped Target Corp. during the holiday season. At issue: Which industry bears more responsibility for protecting consumers’ personal information? The retailers’ argument: Banks must upgrade the security technology for the credit and debit cards they issue….
MI: Hacker steals teacher’s direct deposit paycheck: University says too bad so sad
Darlene Storm reports: No matter how much you love your job, very few people work for free. About 80% of Americans receive their paychecks via direct deposit, but if a hacker manages to reroute your paycheck to his or her account, is that just tough luck and you don’t get paid? That’s basically what a…