Tuesday, July 30, 2019


Here we go again.
A hacker gained access to 100 million Capital One credit card applications and accounts
In one of the biggest data breaches ever, a hacker gained access to more than 100 million Capital One customers' accounts and credit card applications earlier this year.
Paige Thompson is accused of breaking into a Capital One server and gaining access to 140,000 Social Security numbers, 1 million Canadian Social Insurance numbers and 80,000 bank account numbers, in addition to an undisclosed number of people's names, addresses, credit scores, credit limits, balances, and other information, according to the bank and the US Department of Justice.
A criminal complaint says Thompson tried to share the information with others online. The 33-year-old, who lives in Seattle, had previously worked as a tech company software engineer for Amazon Web Services, the cloud hosting company that Capital One was using, the Justice Department said. She was able to gain access by exploiting a misconfigured web application firewall, according to a court filing.
Capital One said it will notify people affected by the breach and will make free credit monitoring and identity protection available. The company expects to incur between $100 million and $150 million in costs related to the hack, including customer notifications, credit monitoring, tech costs and legal support due to the hack.
… The criminal complaint against Thompson paints a picture of a less-than-careful suspect.
Thompson posted the information on GitHub, using her full first, middle and last name, the complaint says. She also boasted on social media that she had Capital One information.




Perfectly timed for tomorrow’s encryption lecture.
ACLU on the GCHQ Backdoor Proposal
Back in January, two senior GCHQ officials proposed a specific backdoor for communications systems. It was universally derided as unworkable – by me, as well. Now Jon Callas of the ACLU explains why.




Automating Privacy. Can it guarantee GDPR compliance?
Microsoft acquires data privacy and governance service BlueTalon
Microsoft today announced that it has acquired BlueTalon, a data privacy and governance service that helps enterprises set policies for how their employees can access their data. The service then enforces those policies across most popular data environments and provides tools for auditing policies and access, too.




Laws is better than Rules.
In other GDPR-related news, Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild writes:
Tardiness with transposing data protection laws comes with a hefty fine.
The European Commission is asking the Court of Justice of the European Union to impose financial sanctions on Greece and Spain for failing to transpose the rules on the Data Protection Law Enforcement Directive before the May 6, 2018, deadline, according to a news release.
The commission is seeking a minimum lump sum of €1,310,000 and a daily penalty payment of €22,169.70 euros from Greece and a minimum lump sum of €5,290,000 and a daily penalty payment of €89, 548.20 from Spain.




Unlikely to like the Like button?
Europe’s top court sharpens guidance for sites using leaky social plug-ins
Europe’s top court has made a ruling that could affect scores of websites that embed the Facebook  ‘Like’ button and receive visitors from the region.
The ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU states such sites are jointly responsible for the initial data processing — and must either obtain informed consent from site visitors prior to data being transferred to Facebook, or be able to demonstrate a legitimate interest legal basis for processing this data.
The ruling is significant because, as currently seems to be the case, Facebook’s Like buttons transfer personal data automatically, when a webpage loads — without the user even needing to interact with the plug-in — which means if websites are relying on visitors’ ‘consenting’ to their data being shared with Facebook they will likely need to change how the plug-in functions to ensure no data is sent to Facebook prior to visitors being asked if they want their browsing to be tracked by the adtech giant.




Not surprising. It’s often the new hires who insist on using the tools they were taught in school.
Executives are not comfortable with analytics platforms, and still prefer their spreadsheets
A recent study of 1.048 executives out of Deloitte finds most companies are not mature when it comes to business analytics; and 62% still rely on spreadsheets for their insights. While 76% of survey respondents report that their analytical maturity has increased over the past year, most are still using traditional tools such as spreadsheets (62%) and business intelligence programs (58%, combined).
Forty-six percent of executives see AI as an important initiative over the coming years.




Of interest to investors and my students?
The New Frontier That Could Outrun AI And Blockchain: Real Estate Tech
it won’t be surprising that real estate was the largest industry in the United States as of 2018. But at a time where technology is at the forefront across all industries, the real estate industry spends less than 1% on information technology.
Why does our largest industry arguably hold the title for the least innovative?
The first game changers emerging in the Proptech space made buying and selling of properties a lot easier and quicker.
Companies like Zillow have changed the way we thought about buying or renting our next home, whether for the next 30 years or just 12 months. Airbnb introduced the concept of repurposing homes for shorter duration rentals, while WeWork has completely disrupted the commercial real estate industry with on-demand workspaces.
Remember: Proptech is technology that makes it easier to buy, sell and manage property. The established poster children focus solely on the buying and selling part of the equation. Right now, there is very little technology that automates how we manage properties.



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