Thomas S. Markey writes: On Feb. 19, a bill was introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate proposing to amend the Pennsylvania Breach of Personal Information Notification Act to add new breach notification requirements for state agencies and political subdivisions of the commonwealth. Enacted in 2005, the act (73 P.S. Section 2301 et seq.) applies to commonwealth…
Category: Of Note
More than 540 million Facebook app datasets found exposed – UpGuard researchers
UpGuard reports: The UpGuard Cyber Risk team can now report that two more third-party developed Facebook app datasets have been found exposed to the public internet. One, originating from the Mexico-based media company Cultura Colectiva, weighs in at 146 gigabytes and contains over 540 million records detailing comments, likes, reactions, account names, FB IDs and…
UK: Council data leak leaves couple who adopted abused children living in fear
Nick Lavigueur reports: A couple who adopted abused children from another part of the country have told how a council blunder put their family at risk. Adam and his wife Jean, who are now based in West Yorkshire, had their world turned upside down when a council from the south of England provided their personal…
This computer scientist beats hackers at their own game
Holly Ober reports: Fatemah Alharbi breaks things in order to learn how to fix them. Not just any old things. Computer operating systems, to be exact, and she conducted research that earned public gratitude from Apple. If she doesn’t look like a hacker that’s because she isn’t, really. She’s a doctoral candidate in computer science…
The teenage hackers who’ve been given a second chance
Chris Quevatre reports: Step inside the offices of Bluescreen and you’ll find some of the UK’s most talented teenage hackers, dragged from a world of crime to fight for the other side. These young computer experts have swapped the confines of their bedrooms for a fairly ordinary looking cyber security company in Plymouth. Bluescreen employs…
How hackers use ransomware to hide data breaches and other attacks
Dan Swinhoe reports: Although ransomware attacks are on the decline — Darktrace suggests infections have decreased by as much as 28 percent between 2017 and 2018 — the threat these extortion attacks pose is still very real and for reasons beyond disruption to operations. More sophisticated attackers are using ransomware to cover their tracks in…