Eight men were arrested across England and Scotland this week as part of a coordinated crackdown against a SIM swapping gang that has hijacked the identities and social media profiles of US celebrities. From a report: The UK National Crime Agency, which made the arrests on Tuesday, said the gang targeted well-known sports stars, musicians, and influencers, primarily located in the…
Tag: personal information
Facebook Sued for ‘Losing Control’ of Users’ Data
Facebook is being sued for “losing control” of the data of about a million users in England and Wales. From a report: The alleged failings were revealed in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where harvested data was used for advertising during elections. Journalist Peter Jukes, leading the action, claims his data was compromised. Facebook told BBC News there was “no evidence” UK…
Microsoft Patent Shows Plans To Revive Dead Loved Ones As Chatbots
Microsoft has been granted a patent that would allow the company to make a chatbot using the personal information of deceased people. The Independent reports: The patent describes creating a bot based on the “images, voice data, social media posts, electronic messages,” and more personal information. “The specific person [who the chat bot represents] may correspond to a past or present…
EPA Finalizes Rule Limiting Research Used for Public Health, Environmental Policy
The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized a rule that limits scientific research used in the crafting of public health and environmental policy. From a report: Researchers argue the rule that prioritizes studies with all data available publicly “essentially blocks” research that uses personal information and confidential medical records that can’t be released because of privacy conditions, per the New York Times,…
Oracle’s Hidden Hand Is Behind the Google Antitrust Lawsuits
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: With great fanfare last week, 44 attorneys general hit Google with two antitrust complaints, following a landmark lawsuit the Justice Department and 11 states lodged against the Alphabet Inc. unit in October. What’s less known is that Oracle Corp. spent years working behind the scenes to convince regulators and law enforcement agencies in…
Apple Launches New App Store Privacy Labels So You Can See How iOS Apps Use Your Data
Apple is officially launching its so-called “nutrition label” privacy disclosures for all iOS device owners running the latest version of iOS 14. The Verge reports: Apple says the new labels will be required for apps on all of its platforms — that includes iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS — and they will have to be up to date and accurate…
Spotify Resets Passwords After a Security Bug Exposed Users’ Private Account Information
Jerry Rivers shares a report from TechCrunch, adding: “…and it took the music service seven months to notice.” From the report: In a data breach notification filed with the California attorney general’s office, the music streaming giant said the data exposed “may have included email address, your preferred display name, password, gender, and date of birth only to certain business partners…
Data of 243 Million Brazilians Exposed Online via Website Source Code
The personal information of more than 243 million Brazilians, including alive and deceased, has been exposed online after web developers left the password for a crucial government database inside the source code of an official Brazilian Ministry of Health’s website for at least six months. From a report: The security snafu was discovered by reporters from Brazilian newspaper Estadao, the same…
US Fertility Says Patient Data Was Stolen in a Ransomware Attack
U.S. Fertility, one of the largest networks of fertility clinics in the United States, has confirmed it was hit by a ransomware attack and that data was taken. From a report: The company was formed in May as a partnership between Shady Grove Fertility, a fertility clinic with dozens of locations across the U.S. east coast, and Amulet Capital Partners, a…
The Worst Passwords of 2020 Show We Are Just As Lazy About Security As Ever
After analyzing 275,699,516 passwords leaked during 2020 data breaches, NordPass and partners found that the most common passwords are incredibly easy to guess — and it could take less than a second or two for attackers to break into accounts using these credentials. Only 44% of those recorded were considered “unique.” ZDNet reports: On Wednesday, the password manager solutions provider published…