Joseph Menn reports on some poor decision-making by Microsoft that left hacking victims in the dark that their communications had been intercepted: Microsoft Corp experts concluded several years ago that Chinese authorities had hacked into more than a thousand Hotmail email accounts, targeting international leaders of China’s Tibetan and Uighur minorities in particular – but…
Category: U.S.
UConn website compromised, prompting users to download malicious program
Kyle Constable reports: The University of Connecticut’s website was compromised Sunday, prompting visitors to download a malicious program posing as Adobe Flash Player, according to a university spokesman. […] The university website’s DNS records – Internet protocols that associate the URL “uconn.edu” with the website’s server and content – were compromised around 11 a.m., Breen…
Criminal Hackers Target Police to Protest Perceived Injustices
Looks like DHS/FBI figured out that people were getting really, really angry over “perceived” injustices and “alleged” use of excessive force. Page Count: 1 page Date: May 8, 2015 Restriction: For Official Use Only Originating Organization: Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation File Type: pdf File Size: 264,818 bytes File Hash (SHA-256):C433AF5A1A1DB72EC7338EB28F4B76BD96509071496809B713DF56BB21ADBAED U//FOUO) Disruptive cyber attacks by criminal hackers—primarily…
“Not a creature was stirring” – well, except Chris Vickery
Three Lock Box is a construction escrow agency in Las Vegas. And while the name “lock box” might suggest security, unfortunately, they had a misconfigured MongoDB installation that exposed several million dollars in funds available in over 90 accounts. Chris Vickery uncovered the leaky database and contacted them immediately on December 24th because of concern that an attacker might be…
New NC law will let parents put security freeze on child’s credit report
WECT in North Carolina is reporting on a new law in NC that might become a model for other states when it comes to protecting children from identity theft: Parents in North Carolina will soon be able to help protect their children from identity theft. A new bill that takes effect January 1, 2016 will…
Few Consequences For Health Privacy Law’s Repeat Offenders
Regulators have logged dozens, even hundreds, of complaints against some health providers for violating federal patient privacy law. Warnings are doled out privately, but sanctions are imposed only rarely. Companies say they take privacy seriously. by Charles Ornstein and Annie Waldman ProPublica, Dec. 29, 2015, 4 a.m. This story was co-published with NPR’s Shots blog. When CVS Health customers complained…