Elizabeth Harrington reports on a newly-released Inspector General’s report on the hack at the Department of Energy previously covered on this blog. Some of the highlights: The Energy department was aware of “early warning signs” that personally identifiable information (PII) of its employees was at risk. The attackers used exploits commonly available on the internet…
Category: Of Note
Minnesota National Guard member accused of stealing Ft. Bragg soldiers’ identity info
CBS News/AP reports: A Minnesota National Guardsman faces federal fraud charges in the alleged theft of names, Social Security numbers and security clearance levels of roughly 400 members of his former Army unit in Fort Bragg, N.C. The Iraq War veteran intended to use the confidential material to create fake IDs for his militia, court…
Swedes uncover Disqus user security breach
David Landes reports: A group of Swedish journalists are sitting on a goldmine of 29 million online comments, with information about users’ identities, from news sites around the world thanks to a security flaw in debate moderation service Disqus. After outing several ‘online haters’ at home, which caused several resignations from the populist, far-right Sweden Democrat…
Chinese hackers leak 20 million hotel guests’ data on WeChat
Patrick Boehler of the South China Morning Post reports: Hackers in China have leaked a database of an estimated 20 million hotel reservations on multiple websites and even WeChat, the wildly popular messaging service, reflecting failed government efforts to prevent massive leaks of personal data. Online security watchdog WooYun said in September that hackers had…
National American University students’ financial information exposed, but what laws protect them?
Joe O’Sullivan reports: When National American University moved from one Rapid City campus to a new location earlier this year, the school or a contractor appears to have improperly disposed of thousands of sensitive student financial records that included names, addresses, loan numbers and Social Security numbers, according to documents reviewed by the Rapid City…
JPMorgan Chase breach update: pile on…
The JPMorgan Chase Ucard breach reported previously on this blog affects residents of numerous states. As such, not only do I expect to see lawsuits filed, but state attorneys general will likely jump into the act to protect their respective residents. Did JPMorgan Chase promptly notify their residents and are they offering enough remediation and…