Joe Johnson reports some of the follow-up on University of Georgia hack disclosed last year: University of Georgia officials thought they may have been under attack from multiple hackers when the identities of thousands of employees and students went missing last fall. But it turned out to be the work of a single person, a…
Why LivingSocial’s 50-million password breach is graver than you may think
Dan Goodin critiques LivingSocial’s statements about the security of their passwords, noting how using SHA1 hashed passwords is not a particularly strong method, even though salting the passwords helps. Read his coverage on Ars Technica.
TN: Mayor’s donation check among records found in dumpster
Andy Wise reports: The director of an adult literacy charity is trying to figure out how the personal information of former associates and donors, including Memphis Mayor AC Wharton, were piled up inside the charity’s dumpster. “It absolutely should not have happened,” said Kevin Dean, executive director of Literacy Mid-South, based in Cooper-Young. “It was…
FOX6 Investigators: ID theft kept secret by IRS
Fox6 puts a human face on the problems of identity theft, with a focus on how the IRS has not notified people whose identity information (Social Security number) was misused. Frustratingly, the IRS was saying it couldn’t disclose such information because of the privacy rights of the identity thieves. A law passed to remedy some…
Which breach concerns you more?
Last week, LivingSocial announced a breach affecting 50 million customers. The breach involved names, email addresses, and passwords, but no Social Security numbers or bank account or credit card information. The breach is getting a lot of press. Last month, I reported on a lawsuit in which a John Doe company alleges the IRS apparently…
U.K. school in fresh security breach
Lucy Kenderdine reports: Police are probing a serious information breach at an Oldham school following the internet posting of confidential student details. More than 110 documents, including exclusion records, academic information and behaviour patterns at Hathershaw College from 2007 to 2009 were made available for anyone to download. Photos of pupils at the Bellfield Avenue…