This is the stuff nightmares are made of. Chris Bing reports: Hackers broke into the computer system of a facility that treats water for about 15,000 people near Tampa, Florida and sought to add a dangerous level of additive to the water supply, the Pinellas County Sheriff said on Monday. The attempt on Friday was…
Category: Of Note
Taiwan Mobile operator’s security breach hits headlines
Arthur Shay of Shay & Shay writes: On 15 January 2021 the National Communications Commission (NCC) issued an official order of recall against Taiwan Mobile, one of the country’s top three mobile operators. The order concerned Taiwan Mobile’s self-branded smartphone (the Amazing A32), which had been supplied by a Chinese company and was sold to…
Blockchain transactions confirm murky and interconnected ransomware scene
Catalin Cimpanu reports: A report published today by blockchain investigations firm Chainalysis confirms that cybercrime groups engaging in ransomware attacks don’t operate in their own bubbles but often switch ransomware suppliers (RaaS services) in a search for better profits. The report analyzed how Bitcoin funds were transferred from victims to criminal groups, and how the…
Terra Quantum AG Company Says It Found Weakness That Imperils Encryption
Ryan Gallagher reports: Security experts have long worried that advances in quantum computing could eventually make it easier to break encryption that protects the privacy of people’s data. That’s because these sophisticated machines can perform calculations at speeds impossible for conventional computers, potentially enabling them to crack codes previously thought indecipherable. Now, a Swiss technology…
The Eleventh U.S. Circuit Weighs in on Data Breach Standing Issues
Alfred Saikali of Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. writes: Yesterday, in a 26-page opinion, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has weighed in on two important questions in the world of privacy and data breach litigation. First, does a plaintiff have standing where he was exposed to a substantial risk of future identity theft, even…
PL: University fined for omitted notification of a data breach
From Personal-Ticker.com: The President of the Personal Data Protection Office in Poland (UODO) imposed a fine on the Medical University of Silesia in the amount of PLN 25.000 (approx. EUR 5.600). The university had suffered a data breach of which it should have notified the supervisory authority and the data subjects according to Articles 33, 34 GDPR,…