What the Hack? Podcast
What the Hack? Podcast
What the Hack? Podcast
What the Hack? Podcast

Data Security

The latest on data breaches and cybersecurity and data security by Adam K Levin.

Air Canada is advising customers to reset their passwords on their mobile application after detecting a potential data breach of customer records. In a notice, Air Canada says that a data breach it discovered last week impacted 20,000 profiles. However, the airline operator is urging all 1.7 million users to reset their passwords. “We detected unusual login behavior with Air Canada’s...
MyHeritage Data Breach
Wireless company T-Mobile suffered a data breach affecting more than 2 million of its 77 million customers. The breach resulted in the compromise of names, phone numbers, email addresses, as well as general account information, but not, according to the company, financial information. T-Mobile’s cybersecurity team identified the breach on August 20th, and took steps to stop the “unauthorized...
DNC False Alarm
News of an attempted voter database hack announced earlier this week was a false alarm, the Democratic National Committee announced this morning. It was initially thought that hackers had used a spearphishing attack to acquire user credentials and access to the DNC’s voter database, an approach that closely mirrored a similar hack announced earlier this week by Microsoft. That...
Russian hacking
Microsoft Corp. announced that it identified and took action against recent Russian hacking attempts ahead of the upcoming 2018 midterm elections. The attacks seemed to be focused on conservative think tanks which have been critical of Russian activities, including the International Republican Institute (which counts Sen. John McCain as a member) and the Hudson Institute, which has raised concerns...
Apple hack
A 16-year old private school student in Australia has pleaded guilty to hacking Apple’s network multiple times, downloading over 90GB of secure data from Apple for an entire year. His excuse? He’s a fan of Apple. The Melbourne teenager admitted to hacking Apple’s network multiple times from his suburban home using tools stored in a folder named as “Hacky hack...
Fax hack
It’s long been known that organizations need to exercise extreme caution when jettisoning old office equipment, especially if it has built-in memory—and that it’s even more crucial to bear in mind that hackers can utilize digital or carbon-based memory. An Israeli-based company recently found another way older communication devices—and new versions of older technology—provide hackers entree into office networks—in this...
pacemaker hack
Security researchers at the recent Black Hat and Def Con security conferences in Las Vegas have placed malware on pacemakers as a proof-of-concept hack to highlight the potential for security vulnerabilities in IoT-enabled medical devices. Another separate demonstration revealed that patients’ vital signs could be falsified in real time. The malware attack on IoT medical devices made it possible...
One of the world’s largest websites has announced a security compromise. Reddit, the self-proclaimed “front page of the Internet,” announced a security breach that occurred over a three-day period in June. What Happened The hacker or hackers bypassed the site’s 2-Factor Authentication associated with several employees credentialed to access sensitive data and used that access to take email addresses, server...
Russian hacking
Russian hackers have successfully infiltrated the control system rooms of U.S. electrical utilities, the Department of Homeland Security announced earlier this week. Suspected hacking groups Dragonfly and Energetic Bear infiltrated their targets using common methods including spear-phishing and watering-hole attacks. They first targeted third-party vendors associated with the utilities, which they then leveraged to steal credentials and gain access...
LabCorp Diagnostics, one of the biggest medical diagnostic companies in the U.S., disclosed that it was investigating a data breach that may have occurred on their networks. While LabCorp isn’t a household name, there’s a good chance they’ve handled some of your medical records or those belonging to someone you know. As listed on their website, the company handles...