Mark Bergen reports: Alphabet Inc.’s Google has quietly decided to scrub an entire category of online content — personal medical records — from its search results, a departure from its typically hands-off approach to policing the web. Google lists the information it removes from its search results on its policy page. On Thursday, the website…
Category: Of Note
Hackers Altered 2016 Voter Rolls and Stole Private Data on U.S. Citizens
Jacob Weindling reports: TIME dropped a bombshell report today that should be getting more attention than it currently is. Here is the tl;dr version of a story that you should read in its entirety. The hacking of state and local election databases in 2016 was more extensive than previously reported, including at least one successful…
$1 million payout for Shelburne hospital privacy breach
Amy Woolvett reports: A class action lawsuit has just set a precedent in Canada against snooping into medical files. “If you a breach (a person’s privacy) you are going to pay for it,” said Raymond Wagner, a lawyer who represented the 681 eligible class members involved in the biggest privacy breach in Canada. Halifax Supreme…
U.S Department of Education looking into security breach at OU
Now THIS really surprises me. Robyn Craig reports: The U.S. Department of Education will become involved with [Oklahoma University] regarding the recent security breach, which released thousands of students’ personal information. The breach, which violated federal law, resulted in the release of student information, including student financial information. Therefore, the U.S. Department of Education is…
A question of harm: LabMD to face off with FTC at 11th Circuit
Craig A. Newman writes: In a consequential test of the Federal Trade Commission’s authority as a data security regulator, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit will hear argument tomorrow in a case that will determine whether the agency must show a concrete consumer injury as an element of an enforcement action, just…
Larson Studios Breaks Silence about TheDarkOverlord hack and extortion (UPDATED)
In an intriguing follow-up to a case I reported in April concerning a hack-extortion incident involving TheDarkOverlord, Janko Roettgers reports that Larson Studios actually paid TheDarkOverlord’s 50 BTC demand. That alone would be surprising and newsworthy (there had been no payments made to the BTC wallet address given in the extortion contract), but Roettgers also…