Stephanie Bodoni reports: Google faces a possible investigation by Irish data privacy regulators related to reports that contractors had been able to listen to audio of users of its digital assistant technology. The Irish Data Protection Commission received a breach notification from the company late Thursday, said Graham Doyle, the agency’s spokesman. Google reacted in…
US mayors group adopts resolution not to pay any more ransoms to hackers
Catalin Cimpanu reports: The US Conference of Mayors unanimously adopted yesterday a resolution not to pay any more ransom demands to hackers following ransomware infections. “Paying ransomware attackers encourages continued attacks on other government systems, as perpetrators financially benefit,” the adopted resolution reads. Read more on ZDNet.
Hackers target Monroe College with ransomware, demand $2 million in bitcoin
Stephanie Pagones reports: Monroe College is “under cyberattack” by hackers who demanded approximately $2 million in bitcoin, police and school officials said Thursday. The school’s computer programs were hacked around 6:45 a.m. Wednesday by a group that got in through ransomware and halted the system, cops said. The hackers sent a message demanding that the…
Premera Blue Cross pays states $10 million over data breach (Updated)
Associated Press reports: Premera Blue Cross, the largest health insurer in the Pacific Northwest, has agreed to pay $10 million to 30 states following an investigation into a data breach that exposed confidential information on more than 10 million people across the country. The settlement, negotiated with the Washington attorney general’s office and filed in…
Google is investigating the source of voice data leak, plans to update its privacy policies
Sarah Perez reports: Google has responded to a report this week from Belgian public broadcaster VRT NWS, which revealed that contractors were given access to Google Assistant voice recordings, including those which contained sensitive information — like addresses, conversations between parents and children, business calls and others containing all sorts of private information. As a…
Together at Last: Welcome, Lee Johnstone!
I am absolutely delighted to welcome Lee Johnstone as a contributor to DataBreaches.net. Lee – better known to some of you as @Cyber_War_News on Twitter – and I have teamed up over the past 8 years or so on a number of projects or analyses. As of today, Lee’s web site, cyberwarnews.info, has been imported…