After the Equifax data breach, some people are considering placing a fraud alert, freeze, or lock on their credit file to help prevent identity thieves from opening new accounts in their name. To help consumers decide on a course of action, a Federal Trade Commission blog post, Fraud alert, freeze or lock after Equifax? FAQs,…
Category: Of Note
U.S. claims North Korea was responsible for WannaCry
Thomas P. Bossert, who is an assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, writes: Cybersecurity isn’t easy, but simple principles still apply. Accountability is one, cooperation another. They are the cornerstones of security and resilience in any society. In furtherance of both, and after careful investigation, the U.S. today publicly attributes the massive “WannaCry”…
Air Force Hackers Earn Biggest Government Bug Bounty Ever
Kate Conger reports: A pair of hackers discovered a vulnerability in Air Force software that allowed them to gain access to the Department of Defense’s unclassified network—a find that earned them more than $10,000, the largest payout ever in a government bug bounty program. Read more on Gizmodo.
Still time to cast your vote for worst health data breaches of 2017
So I asked you to let me know what you thought the worst health data breaches of 2017 were. I’ve gotten only a few responses, but they all agree with each other. But let’s hear what you think. You can email me your picks or thoughts at admin[at]databreaches[dot]net or tweet them to me at @PogoWasRight…
Health open data bungle meant Aussies could be identified
Note: this report out of the University of Melbourne is a follow-up study related to a breach disclosed in 2016. Allie Coyne reports: Researchers from the University of Melbourne have been able to easily re-identify patients from confidential data released by the federal Health department, without using decryption methods. Dr Chris Culnane, Dr Benjamin Rubinstein…
Researcher claims LinkedIn ignored security flaw, but did they?
Tom Warren reports: Khalil Shreateh, a self-professed IT expert from Palestine, hit the headlines four years ago when he hacked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s wall. Shreateh was frustrated that Facebook was ignoring a big security flaw, so demonstrating it on Zuckerberg’s own Facebook wall was an easy way to get the company to act. Shreateh…