Mainichi reports: The culprit behind the theft of customer data from correspondence education giant Benesse always intended to sell the information, and did so almost immediately, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) believes. A source close to the case has told the Mainichi Shimbun that a systems engineer from a subcontractor managing a Benesse Holdings Inc….
Category: Non-U.S.
AU: Police swoop on alleged taxi credit card fraud syndicate in Sydney
Rose Powell reports: A fraud racket with the potential to steal the credit card details of hundreds of Sydney taxi users has been dismantled following police raids. Several members of the group were arrested last week in a card-cloning den set up in a motel room in Chullora. Some 800 blank credit cards, as well as…
Update: Vodafone alerts privacy watchdog
Tom Pullar-Strecker and Siobhan Downes report: Vodafone says it has informed the Privacy Commissioner about a data breach identified by a customer yesterday. The customer said he had been able to access details of other people’s Vodafone’s accounts, including personal information, their internet usage and credit-card details by using a default password. Vodafone spokeswoman Emma Carter…
SingPass breach: time for government agencies to take security more seriously
Alfred Siew reports: Perhaps the worst thing that can happen after the recent SingPass security breach is to assume it cannot happen again. This idea that everything is working fine is foolhardy, after news last week that three of the 1,560 compromised SingPass accounts were used to apply for work permits. Thus it’s disappointing to hear the government saying there are no…
NZ: Vodafone privacy breach ‘serious’
Liam Hyslop reports: Vodafone is experiencing a serious privacy breach – people with a master password are able to access private customer information, including credit card details. The loophole was discovered by a new Vodafone customer, who said he accidentally accessed another Vodafone customer’s account with the password when he was trying to get into…
Hotel Hippo website goes belly-up after massive security failure
Graham Cluley writes that the Hotel Hippo website is no more following an “appalling” leak recently disclosed by a researcher. A statement issued by HotelStayUK confirms its demise: HotelHippo has shut down and will not reopen. Our investigations showed that just 24 customers were affected by the issues with HotelHippo. This was a small very little used site….