Jamie Williams writes: The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the federal “anti-hacking” statute, is long overdue for reform. The 1986 law—which was prompted in part by fear generated by the 1983 technothriller WarGames—is vague, draconian, and notoriously out of touch with how we use computers today. Unfortunately, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Lindsey Graham are on a mission…
Category: Of Note
Precision Medicine Initiative and Data Security
Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Lisa O. Monaco write: The health care system of the future is taking shape right now, and the foundation of that new system is health care data that is private, trusted and secure. Today, we are pleased to release the final Data Security Policy Principles and Framework (Security Framework) for President Obama’s Precision…
Probable security breach may have compromised thousands of Lewis Palmer students’ data
Sherrie Pief reports: Lewis-Palmer School District 38 officials are mum about the probability that a security breach related to its Infinite Campus platform may have compromised more than 2,000 students’ personal information. Infinite Campus is a software program that stores personal and academic information about students in the district. But wait… the district has known…
Insider breach – Shapeshift’s story
@SwiftonSecurity kept telling everyone on Twitter that we #MUSTREAD the story of what happened at Shapeshift.io. And with good reason: it’s a phenomenal account of an insider breach told with the kind of refreshing honesty that’s often missing in most breach disclosures. It also reads like a thriller. I’m going to give readers a different…
Did some disgrace besmirch “Anonymous” by hacking Turkish hospitals and leaking sensitive patient info?
The leak of more than 50 million Turkish citizens’ information in 2015 and 2016 was cause for great concern. Now Kevin Collier reports on a claimed hack involving Turkish citizens’ information that involves very sensitive personal and medical information. The hack was first reported by Hurriyet. Collier reports: A self-proclaimed member of the hacktivist group Anonymous has…
Ukrainian hacker admits hacks of MarketWired, PRN, and Business Wire press releases for securities fraud scheme
A Ukrainian hacker today admitted his role in an international scheme to hack into three business newswires, steal yet-to-be published press releases containing non-public financial information, and use the information to make trades that allegedly generated approximately $30 million in illegal profits, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Vadym Iermolovych, 28, of Kiev, Ukraine, pleaded…