Shocking Lack of Encryption Exposes Data
Well, this headline sure blew up quickly. It’s a story of absolute absurdity, for how little effort the cyber criminals needed to pull off a data breach of Tea, a dating advice and safety platform exclusively for women – and a second breach on top of that. Four million users: this was the number of… Read More
The Data Devils Wear Prada
Cyber criminals would probably say data breaches are always in fashion. Now, with French luxury retailer Louis Vuitton sending out breach notifications to customers in several countries, you could say they truly are in fashion. Customers in South Korea, Turkey and the UK were alerted that personal data including their names and contact information was… Read More
Everyone’s Data is a Target
It seems more and more common these days that the sum total of breached data is in the billions. Researchers this month have announced the discovery of 16 billion exposed login credentials across multiple major platforms. Just about everything imaginable was caught up in this net: social media like Facebook, Google email logins, Apple accounts,… Read More
Data Breaches Don’t Discriminate
When applications are intentionally designed to secretly spy on unsuspecting users, it’s no great shame when the operators themselves experience a data breach that compromises their own information. Three stalkerware apps – phone monitoring apps which allow a user illicit access to a target’s personal data via the phone on which it is implanted –… Read More
Are People Prepared for Quantum Cyber Attacks?
We recently examined the evolving trends, predictions and concerns in the realm of quantum computing. The capability to process vast stores of data at unprecedented speeds presents threats to classical computing, in particular certain methods of traditional data security. Cryptographic algorithms in particular could face the risk of quantum computers, leading to recent research on… Read More
Data Vulnerable to Critical Flaws and Third Parties
Further data breach news for the automotive industry, in connection with a third-party vendor: this time it is car rental company Hertz that has announced a security breach. Personal data including names, contact info, credit card and driver’s license info were exposed for an undisclosed number of customers around the globe (though over 3,400 in… Read More
Oracle Downplays Data Breach in the Cloud
Just when you thought your data was safe in the Cloud, it might turn out to be…well, not so much. Despite Oracle’s initial denials and continuing downplay attempts, word eventually got around that cyber criminals had breached Oracle Health, a healthcare technology branch, soon followed by a breach of Oracle Cloud itself. The hacker responsible… Read More
Allstate Insurance Dropped the Ball on Ensuring Data Security
More news of unencrypted, plaintext data from a major organization being left in the open for cyber criminals. Not merely a set of discarded hard drives at a random Netherlands air base, now the state of New York is suing insurance giant Allstate for their lack of digital cyber hygiene: websites that left personal information… Read More
Is Sensitive Data Your New Carry On Luggage?
Sensitive data on unencrypted devices has become way too common these days, popping up in places they definitely shouldn’t be. We’ll get back to why such devices shouldn’t lack encryption in the first place, but it’s still shocking when you hear how a bundle of 500 GB hard drives picked up at a Netherlands airbase… Read More
More Internet of Things Insecurity
Another week, another exposure of billions of records of sensitive data. The integrity of Internet of Things-based (IoT) cybersecurity has always been a major concern since its proliferation in recent years; Palo Alto Networks reports that even now, 57% of IoT devices have insufficient security, and 98% of device data is unencrypted. In direct consequence… Read More