Thomas Rid reports: On an April afternoon earlier this year, Russian president Vladimir Putin headlined a gathering of some four hundred journalists, bloggers, and media executives in St. Petersburg. Dressed in a sleek navy suit, Putin looked relaxed, even comfortable, as he took questions. About an hour into the forum, a young blogger in a…
Category: Of Note
How Hackers Broke Into John Podesta and Colin Powell’s Gmail Accounts
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai reports: On March 19 of this year, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta received an alarming email that appeared to come from Google. The email, however, didn’t come from the internet giant. It was actually an attempt to hack into his personal account. In fact, the message came from a group of hackers…
Hookup Service ‘Adult FriendFinder’ May Have Been Hacked—Again
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai reports: Online hookup website “Adult FriendFinder” might have been hacked—again. On Tuesday evening, a hacker known as Revolver or 1×0123 claimed to have breached into the service, posting two screenshots that appeared to show he had access to some portion of the website’s infrastructure. Another notorious hacker known as Peace also claimed to have hacked…
Russian Hacker, Wanted by F.B.I., Is Arrested in Prague, Czechs Say
HANA de GOEIJ reports: A man identified as a Russian hacker suspected of pursuing targets in the United States has been arrested in the Czech Republic, the police announced Tuesday evening. The suspect, who was captured in a raid at a hotel in central Prague, did not resist arrest, but he had medical problems and was briefly hospitalized,…
NV: State agency audit withheld to protect sensitive data after serious security lapses found
Sandra Chereb reports: Auditors delayed release of a report detailing security vulnerabilities in state databases to protect the information of tens of thousands of current and former state employees and their beneficiaries, a legislative committee was told Tuesday. Douglas Peterson, information systems audit supervisor, told the Legislative Audit Subcommittee it was the first time he…
$2.14 million HIPAA settlement underscores importance of enterprise-wide risk analysis
St. Joseph Health (SJH) has agreed to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules following the report that files containing electronic protected health information (ePHI) were publicly accessible through internet search engines from 2011 until 2012. SJH, a nonprofit integrated Catholic health care delivery…