Surabhi Agarwal reports that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has taken steps to prevent a future breach like the one that caused a media firestorm when a reporter was able to easily purchase access to Aadhaar credentials. UIDAI has now restricted the access of those who were previously able to access information more…
Category: Of Note
How to Assess a Vendor’s Data Security
Cooper Quintin and Soraya Okuda of EFF collaborated with Jonah Sheridan of Information Ecology to come up with a helpful guide: Perhaps you’re an office manager tasked with setting up a new email system for your nonprofit, or maybe you’re a legal secretary for a small firm and you’ve been asked to choose an app…
Shoot/Sue the Messenger, Indian style: An Indian journalist exposed a huge breach in a government database. Now she’s facing a police complaint.
Vidhi Doshi reports: An Indian government agency has filed a police complaint against a journalist who exposed a possible security breach in the country’s vast biometric database that contains the personal details of more than 1 billion citizens, raising fresh concerns about shrinking press freedom in India. The complaint against journalist Rachna Khaira came after she wrote…
Florida colleges receive extortion demands to avert attacks on campuses (UPDATED)
Stephanie Brown reports: An extortion email apparently sent to several colleges and universities demands payment in Bitcoin, threatening to commit an attack against campus students and faculty. We first told you Wednesday that the University of North Florida confirmed they had received an emailed extortion threat. The UNF Crime Alert said law enforcement believed the…
Shafer’s attorney files motion to dismiss federal charges of cyberstalking an FBI agent’s family and court personnel
I haven’t had time to really read this carefully yet, but Tor Ekeland has filed a motion to dismiss U.S. v. Shafer, a case that may leave you scratching your head and wondering why the government is devoting so many precious resources to persecuting and harassing one of the good guys. And for all this…
FTC Gives Final Approval to Lenovo Settlement
The Federal Trade Commission has given final approval to a settlement with Lenovo Inc., related to charges that the company harmed consumers by pre-loading software on some laptops that compromised security protections in order to deliver ads to consumers. In its complaint, the FTC charged that beginning in August 2014 Lenovo began selling consumer laptops in…