MasterCard Inc. announced that it has enhanced to its security efforts, providing U.S. cardholders with greater protection from fraud and identity theft. The company noted that all MasterCard credit, debit, prepaid and small business cards issued in the U.S. will now carry Identity Theft Resolution assistance. The program provides help in canceling missing cards and…
Category: Of Note
Los Angeles County moves to require computer encryption after medical data breach
Abby Sewell reports: Following a break-in at a county health contractor’s office that led to the theft of computers containing personal information about more than 342,000 patients, Los Angeles County supervisors moved to tighten protocols for protecting data. The county already requires that workers’ laptops be encrypted. The supervisors voted Tuesday to extend that policy…
iPhone owners hit by ‘ransomware’ hack demanding money for their phones
James Vincent reports: An iPhone feature designed to discourage theft by letting users shut down their smartphone remotely has reportedly being compromised by hackers using it to hold mobiles to ransom. Posts from Apple’s official support forums describe how users’ Find My iPhone feature (also available for the iPad) has been hijacked by fraudsters who…
Government Seeks Seven-Month Sentence – Time Served – for LulzSec Leader ‘Sabu’
Kim Zetter reports: As a reward for his extensive cooperation helping prosecutors hunt down his fellow hackers, the government is seeking time served for the long-awaited sentencing of top LulzSec leader Hector Xavier Monsegur, also known as “Sabu.” After delaying his sentencing for nearly three years, the government has asked a federal court to sentence…
Experian notifies consumers of a breach. Again.
Once again, Experian is notifying some consumers of a breach that resulted in their credit reports being accessed by criminals. The breach occurred on May 14. In this case, the client whose login credentials were compromised and used to access Experian’s database was the Bluegrass Community Federal Credit Union in Ashland, Kentucky. Experian and law enforcement…
eBay hit with massive security breach, asks all users to change passwords (updated)
Well, we knew this was coming after a marker for an alert was noticed on PayPal this morning, but now it’s definite: Ebay is asking users to change passwords. Russell Brandom reports: Later today, eBay will begin asking all of its 112 million customers to change their passwords, in the wake of a newly discovered database…