Data Security

Employment fraud is currently the most prevalent scam targeting consumers, according to Better Business Bureau report. The scams primarily target job-seekers with promises of great job opportunities and high pay. One victim in Montana was approached by what appeared to be a courier service offering him more than $70,000 per year to purchase and ship consumer electronics. After receiving payment to...

Congress proposed a bill to improve the security of internet-enabled devices called the Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2019. The bipartisan legislation is aimed at establishing standards for any internet-connected device acquired by or used by an employee of the federal government. IoT devices have long been a weak point in the cybersecurity of agencies and organizations...

Citrix, a major network software company, had its internal network compromised by what appears to be an international hacking campaign. The company was alerted to the cyberattack by the FBI earlier this month. “While not confirmed, the FBI has advised that the hackers likely used a tactic known as password spraying, a technique that exploits weak passwords. Once they gained a...

Adam Levin was on a recent episode of CBS This Morning to discuss a police officer accused of using federal databases to prowl for women. "It's a violation of privacy. It's a violation of professional ethics. It's a violation of the codes of conduct of every police department I can think of," said Levin. See the segment here.  

The sitcom "Happy Days" was pretty much doomed when the Fonz, wearing swim trunks and a leather jacket, stepped into that waterski and jumped a shark. That episode now epitomizes the over-reach that sends television shows on a downhill trajectory. The Internet of Things (IoT) found a still better foothold in consumer households with Amazon's recent acquisition of eero, a...

The infrastructure at the core of the internet is vulnerable to attack from state-sponsored hackers, its governing body warned.  The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), charged with overseeing Domain Name Systems (DNS), published an announcement that companies have moved too slowly to adopt security standards that would have mitigated several recent large-scale cyberattacks. DNS is the system...

According to a recent report, information from a leaked database revealed the extent to which China is tracking its citizens, particularly its Uyghur and Kazakh minorities. The database contained the national ID card number, sex, nationality, address, birthdate, photos, past employers, and real-time data and locations of over 2.5 million people in Xinjiang, a region in western China home to...

As Brexit looms, the UK and the EU can still agree that Facebook needs to be reined in. A report published earlier this month by the U.K. Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee likened the social media company to “‘digital gangsters’ in the online world, considering themselves to be ahead of and beyond the law.” The committee came to...

Facebook’s long string of privacy scandals may (finally) have some meaningful repercussions by way of a multi-billion dollar fine from the Federal Trade Commission. The social media giant has been under investigation by the FTC since March 2018 in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which affected 87 million users and may have been a pivotal influence in...

The U.S. Federal Government should pass legislation protecting citizens’ privacy online, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. The GAO study referenced 101 privacy violations that had been referred to the FTC for enforcement, nearly none of them resulting in fines or penalties for offenders. All of the violations were associated with internet companies. “In most of...