Brian Bakst of AP reports: A University of Minnesota law professor has apologized to violent crime victims and witnesses after a computer with sensitive information of nearly 300 people was stolen from his office, but he said Friday that there’s no indication the thief has accessed the data. Criminologist Barry Feld, a prominent juvenile justice…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
How’s the security on your smart fridge?
Krissy Rushing reports: Today Proofpoint, a security service provider, put out a press release that reveals a cyberattack coming from smart appliances–the first such documented Internet of Things (IoT) attack. More than 750,000 malicious emails were sent from 100,000+ compromised connected home appliances and gadgets, including routers, TVs, and a connected fridge. Considering that the market…
Target Hackers Wrote Partly in Russian, Displayed High Skill, Report Finds
Danny Yadron reports: The holiday data breach at Target Corp. appeared to be part of a broad and highly sophisticated international hacking campaign against multiple retailers, according to a report prepared by federal and private investigators that was sent to financial-services companies and retailers. The report offers some of the first details to emerge about the source…
Worried about Target getting your information if you sign up for the free credit monitoring with Experian? Don’t be.
I’ve seen a number of comments around the web from individuals who are concerned about signing up for the free credit monitoring by Experian that’s been offered by Target. So I contacted Experian and asked them if they share registration information with Target. Here’s the reply I got from Greg Young, Director, Public Relations of Experian Consumer…
U.S. companies allowed to delay disclosure of data breaches
There’s really nothing new in here that regular readers of this blog won’t know already, but Karen Freifeld reports: A decade of lawmaking by U.S. states to ensure consumers are told when their data has been hacked still lets companies such as Target Corp wait weeks or even months to disclose security breaches. Forty-six of…
Starbucks caught storing mobile passwords in clear text
Evan Schuman reports: The Starbucks mobile app, the most used mobile-payment app in the U.S., has been storing usernames, email addresses and passwords in clear text, Starbucks executives confirmed late on Tuesday (Jan. 14). The credentials were stored in such a way that anyone with access to the phone can see the passwords and usernames…