One of the absolute joys of blogging about privacy and breaches for the last 11+ years is that I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many fantastic scholars and practitioners. But I’ve only had that opportunity because a few people have done the hard work to organize events and to graciously offer to comp me so…
Category: Of Note
Federal Appeals Court Slams Data Breach Privilege Claim
Craig A. Newman writes: In the most recent object lesson in a data breach privilege case, a federal appeals court has ordered a Michigan-based mortgage lender to turn over privileged forensic investigatory documents after the investigator’s conclusions were revealed in discovery. Background. In the case, Leibovic v. United Shore Financial Services, LLC, et al, No. 17-2290,…
North Royalton hacker stole potentially embarrassing information from computers, feds say
Eric Heisig reports: Federal prosecutors accused a North Royalton man of creating a malware program named “Fruitfly” that he used to worm its way into thousands of computers nationwide, according to a news release. Phillip Durachinsky, 28, used the malware to steal people’s personal information, including usernames, passwords, financial records, medical records, photographs, internet searches…
UK: ICO slams Carphone Warehouse with £400,000 penalty; inadequate security contributed to 2015 hack
If you’ve been following along since 2015, you may recall a breach involving Carphone Warehouse that was first disclosed in August, 2015. At the time, we were told that the hack affected 2.4 million customers’ data and about 90,000 customers’ credit cards. Fast forward to today, when the U.K.’s Information Commissioner announced that it has…
UIDAI firewalls 5,000 officials post ‘breach’
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…
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…