Schneider on Security: “Some of us — myself included — have proposed lawful government hacking as an alternative to backdoors. A new report from the Center of Internet and Society looks at the security risks of allowing government hacking. They include: Disincentive for vulnerability disclosure Cultivation of a market for surveillance tools Attackers co-opt hacking… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: ID Theft
IG Audit finds continues flaws in OPM security of federal employee data
NextGov: “The Office of Personnel Management inspector general again found flaws in the agency’s contracting for the credit monitoring and ID theft services it provides to the more than 21.5 million current, former and prospective federal employees affected by the 2015 data breaches. OPM has gone through two different contracts for post-breach protections. The IG… Continue Reading
Bill Would Establish Cybersecurity Inspections, Impose Mandatory Penalties, and Compensate Consumers for Stolen Data
“United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) today introduced the Data Breach Prevention and Compensation Act to hold large credit reporting agencies (CRAs) – including Equifax – accountable for data breaches involving consumer data. The bill would give the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) more direct supervisory authority over data security at CRAs,… Continue Reading
Equifax data breach fallout – hundreds of class action suits and SEC subpoena
Equifax faces hundreds of class-action lawsuits and an SEC subpoena over the way it handled its data breach “Equifax, the credit reporting firm, is facing more than 240 class-action lawsuits from consumers — in addition to suits from shareholders and financial institutions — over the way it handled a massive data breach that affected 145.5 million Americans. The… Continue Reading
Equifax says it owns all its data about you – really!
Senate Commerce Committee Hearing – Protecting Consumers in the Era of Major Data Breaches – November 8, 2017: “…“Massive data breaches have touched the vast majority of American consumers,” said [Senator John] Thune [R- S.D.]. “When such breaches occur, urgent action is necessary to protect sensitive personal information. This hearing will give the public the… Continue Reading
Business Email Scams: Protecting Your Company’s Information
From the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities, a succinct and very useful Infographic guide: “Business Email Compromise is a cyber threat targeted against businesses, both large and small, that typically involves a con artist targeting employees with access to company financial or sensitive documents. The scammers lead the employees to believe they are a… Continue Reading
EPIC Urges Congress To Hold Equifax Accountable, Update Data Protection Law
“EPIC has sent statements to Congress ahead of hearings in the House and Senate on the Equifax data breach. EPIC underscored the risk to American consumers of data breaches which are increasingly severe. EPIC urged Congress to require prompt data breach notification, data minimization, and privacy enhancing techniques. In 2011 EPIC testified in the House… Continue Reading
Report – Phish For the Future
“This report describes “Phish For The Future,” an advanced persistent spearphishing campaign targeting digital civil liberties activists at Free Press and Fight For the Future. Between July 7th and August 8th of 2017 we observed almost 70 spearphishing attempts against employees of internet freedom NGOs Fight for the Future and Free Press, all coming from… Continue Reading
The Equifax Data Breach: What to Do
FTC – “If you have a credit report, there’s a good chance that you’re one of the 143 million American consumers whose sensitive personal information was exposed in a data breach at Equifax, one of the nation’s three major credit reporting agencies. Here are the facts, according to Equifax. The breach lasted from mid-May through… Continue Reading
Preventing and Responding to Identity Theft
US Cert Security update: Preventing and Responding to Identity Theft “You can be a victim of identity theft even if you never use a computer. Malicious people may be able to obtain personal information (such as credit card numbers, phone numbers, account numbers, and addresses) by stealing your wallet, overhearing a phone conversation, rummaging through… Continue Reading
Wharton – After Equifax, Can Our Data Ever Be Safe?
Follow up to previous posting – Equifax is one of many companies that collect information about you – via Knowledge@Wharton – “In the annals of data breaches, the Equifax hacking stands alone due to its sheer scale: Digital thieves traipsed through the personal information of 143 million Americans for several months to do with it… Continue Reading
FTC alerts consumers about post Equifax scams
Ring, ring. “This is Equifax calling to verify your account information.” Stop. Don’t tell them anything. They’re not from Equifax. It’s a scam. Equifax will not call you out of the blue. That’s just one scam you might see after Equifax’s recent data breach. Other calls might try to trick you into giving your personal… Continue Reading
