Shannon Flynn writes: Imagine that you open your email to find a notice that you’ve been part of a data breach. The message says you’re entitled to a settlement payout as part of a class-action lawsuit. What do you do next? With cyber crime as rampant as it is today, this scenario is a reality…
Japan’s Supreme Court rules cryptojacking scripts are not malware
Laura Dobberstein reports: A man found guilty of using the Coinhive cryptojacking script to mine Monero on users’ PCs while they browsed the web has been cleared by Japan’s Supreme Court on the grounds that crypto mining software is not malware. Tokyo High Court ruled against the defendant, 34-year-old Seiya Moroi, on charges of keeping…
WordPress plugin flaw puts users of 20,000 sites at phishing risk
Bill Toulas reports: The WordPress WP HTML Mail plugin, installed in over 20,000 sites, is vulnerable to a high-severity flaw that can lead to code injection and the distribution of convincing phishing emails. ‘WP HTML Mail’ is a plugin used for designing custom emails, contact form notifications, and generally tailored messages that online platforms send…
IRS Will Soon Require Selfies for Online Access
Brian Krebs reports: If you created an online account to manage your tax records with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), those login credentials will cease to work later this year. The agency says that by the summer of 2022, the only way to log in to irs.gov will be through ID.me, an online identity verification service that…
Two covered entities who discovered breaches last summer first notifying patients
Two breaches that were first reported to HHS in November have now been more fully disclosed. Both of the following breaches were first reported to HHS in November as impacting 500 or 501 patients — entries that this site usually suspects are just “markers” for “we have no idea yet how many were impacted.” Anne…
CA: Chico State computer hacker sentenced
Chloe Curtis reports on an insider breach that exposed students’ personal information and requests for COVID vaccination exemptions: A 22-year-old Chico man was sentenced to probation, fines and community service after admitting to illegally hacking multiple computers at Chico State. Alejandro Benitez appeared in Butte County Superior Court on Thursday where he entered a plea…