Sometimes it is what you get, rather
than how much you get, that determines the value of a hack.
Experian
Customers Unsafe as Hackers Steal Credit Report Data
October 29, 2012 by admin
Jordan Robertson reports:
When hackers broke
into computers at Abilene Telco Federal Credit Union last year, they
gained access to sensitive financial information on people from far
beyond the bank’s home in west-central Texas.
The cyberthieves
broke into an employee’s computer in September 2011 and stole
the password for the bank’s online account with Experian
Plc, the credit reporting agency with data on more
than 740 million consumers. The intruders then downloaded credit
reports on 847 people, said Dana Pardee, a branch manager at the
bank. They took Social Security numbers, birthdates and detailed
financial data on people across the country who had never done
business with Abilene Telco, which has two locations and serves a
city of 117,000.
The incident is
one of 86 data breaches since 2006 that expose flaws in the way
credit-reporting agencies protect their databases.
Read more on Bloomberg.
Jordan’s report was inspired by data compiled on DataLossDB.org,
some of which we obtained under Freedom of Information requests. He
also cites a complaint I filed with the FTC in April about all the
Experian-related incidents, a complaint I have not discussed
previously on this blog. I’ll issue my own statement on his report
and my complaint in a separate blog post.
“Yeah, but don't worry about it. We
never do.”
NZ:
Inland Revenue Department has had 32 privacy breaches in the past
year.
October 28, 2012 by admin
ONE News in New Zealand
reveals a government department has had a series of privacy breaches.
Following soon after the breach involving the Ministry
of Social Development, reports of inadequate data
protection involving the Inland
Revenue Department are just what the
government doesn’t need. Even worse, the department is getting a
black eye in the press for not informing those affected. ONE
News reports:
ONE News viewers
Ross Muir and his wife recently received a nasty shock in the mail –
a letter from IRD with confidential tax details in unsealed envelopes
– and contacted ONE News worried about their privacy.
Ross said he was
“quite upset” by the discovery.
“It’s not the
sort of information you would like shown to anybody else,” he said.
On further
investigation ONE News reporter Georgina Ball discovered that in the
past year, the IRD has breached the privacy of almost 6400 New
Zealanders, in 32 separate incidents.
For 638 people the
breach was so serious that IRD was forced to put security measures in
place to protect them from identity theft.
However, the
department failed to tell the 5741 others that they were victims,
because it did not consider the breaches serious enough.
Read more on ONE
News. The IRD’s statement is somewhat puzzling, as it refers
to them improving their e-mail security. How many of the 32 breaches
involved e-mail? How many involved postal mail? Hacks? A breakdown
of the 32 breaches would be helpful.
I suppose the alternative would have
been to fly a drone off the wing tip of his plane...
"According to reports, Imran
Khan was detained yesterday by US officials for questioning
on his views on United States drone strikes in Pakistan. Glenn
Greenwald writing for the guardian: 'On Saturday, Khan boarded a
flight from Canada to New York in order to appear at a fundraising
lunch and other events. But before the flight could take off, U.S.
immigration officials removed him from the plane and detained him for
two hours, causing him to miss the flight. On Twitter, Khan reported
that he was "interrogated on [his] views on drones" and
then added: "My stance is known. Drone attacks must stop."
He then defiantly noted: "Missed flight and sad to miss the
Fundraising lunch in NY but nothing will change my stance."'"
(Related) ...and he could watch us
watching him.
Most
U.S. Drones Openly Broadcast Secret Video Feeds
Four years after discovering that
militants were tapping into drone video feeds, the U.S. military
still hasn’t secured the transmissions of more than half of its
fleet of Predator and Reaper drones, Danger Room has learned. The
majority of the aircraft still broadcast their classified video
streams “in the clear” — without encryption. With a minimal
amount of equipment and know-how, militants can see what America’s
drones see.
Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, have
become the single most important weapon in America’s far-flung
pursuit of violent extremists. Hundreds of American Predators and
Reapers fly above Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan —
watching suspected enemies, and striking them when necessary. Nearly
3,000 people have been killed in the decade-long drone campaign.
How do you know the storm is
unprecedented?
New
York Times, Wall Street Journal shed paywalls for Hurricane Sandy
Two major publications have stripped
away their paywalls to give consumers unfettered access to up-to-date
information on the arrival of Hurricane Sandy.
The New York Times removed its usual
paywall on Sunday evening for both its Web site and its apps.
Spokesperson Eileen Murphy told
Poynter:
The New York Times is not the only
media outlet that considers the category
1 hurricane severe enough to lower its paywall temporarily. Raju
Narisetti, an editor stationed at the Wall Street Journal, tweeted
that the whole site will be available free from today.
Meanwhile, other Web sites are also
stepping up their Hurricane Sandy coverage. Google has launched an
interactive map tracking Sandy's progress across the U.S.
mid-Atlantic coast. There is also a map which details
the storm's effects on New York City, which is expected to be an
area hard-hit by the impending storm.
Hurricane Sandy has already hit one
news outlet hard -- albeit online. Weather.com has reported 960
million pageviews in the last three days -- an increase of around
one-third on its normal traffic -- as the U.S. public scrabbles to
stay informed.
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