Dan Goodin reports: A social hangout website for teenage girls has sprung a leak that’s exposing plaintext passwords protecting as many as 5.5 million user accounts. As this post went live, all attempts to get the leak plugged had failed. Operators of i-Dressup didn’t respond to messages sent by Ars informing them that a hacker has already…
UK: Teenager appears in court over TalkTalk cyber-attack
The Press Association reports: A teenager has appeared in court accused of hacking the internet company TalkTalk to obtain customer data before asking for a six-figure blackmail payment in bitcoin. Daniel Kelley, 19, appeared at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday accused of demanding 465 bitcoins, worth about £216,000, from the company after allegedly carrying out…
Member of Syrian Electronic Army pleads guilty in U.S. court
Susan Heavey reports: A computer hacker sympathetic to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government pleaded guilty for his role as a middleman in an extortion scheme targeting U.S. media outlets and governments, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday. It said in a statement that Peter Romar, 37, was a member of the Syrian Electronic…
Across US, police officers abuse confidential databases
Sadie Gurman and Eric Tucker report: Police officers across the country misuse confidential law enforcement databases to get information on romantic partners, business associates, neighbors, journalists and others for reasons that have nothing to do with daily police work, an Associated Press investigation has found. Criminal-history and driver databases give officers critical information about people…
AU: Privacy watchdog called after Health Department data breach
Noel Towell and Rania Spooner report: Health Minister Sussan Ley has apologised to doctors over the accidental leaking of sensitive Medicare data. The federal privacy watchdog will assess Health Department claims that no patients’ medical information has been released after sensitive information on the Pharmaceutical Benefits and Medicare Benefits schemes was accidentally leaked by the department. […] The department…
NY: 488 affected by data breach in Mastic Beach
News12 reports: The village of Mastic Beach says 488 residents may have had their personal information stolen in a data breach by a former employee pretending to be the chief of police. Mayor Maura Spery says an 18-month audit discovered a former village employee illegally accessed highly personal information from a law enforcement database. “The…