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.

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When investing, it's always a good idea to spread the wealth. Whether you invest only as much as can be insured, or you use different financial managers with unique areas of expertise, your goal is to maximize your capital. Everyone gets a piece of the pie, and within portfolios there's still more diversification. When it comes to digital marketing, advertisers are wise to spread...
USA Elections
One of the most discussed topics of this year’s election cycle is how best to protect the elections themselves from hackers and other outside influence. Following the multitude of hacks, leaked emails, data breaches, and disinformation campaigns that marred the 2016 elections, Congress has allocated $380 million to states requesting cybersecurity assistance. The grants came in the form of a...
Chinese airline hack
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific discovered a data breach that compromised the information of more than 9 million passengers, the company announced last week. It is the biggest breach to date of an airline. In the same release, Cathay announced that the “types of personal data accessed were the names of passengers, their nationalities, dates of birth, telephone numbers, email,...
A network-wide infection of Russian malware at the U.S. Geological Survey was traced back to a single employee’s viewing of pornographic content on the job. In a study released by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the department’s security audit of “suspicious internet traffic” at a USGS facility in South Dakota was traced back to an unnamed employee with...
Chinese aerospace hacking
The U.S. Justice Department announced charges against ten Chinese intelligence agents for hacking into computer systems belonging to U.S. and international companies to steal aerospace technology and data. The indictment, revealed earlier this week accuses agents working for the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security (JSSD) of conspiring “to steal sensitive commercial technological, aviation, and aerospace data by hacking into...
Stuxnet
The Israeli evening news Hadashot reported that Iran “is again facing a attack, from a more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated virus than before.” According to sketchy reports, the attack  hit infrastructure and strategic networks. Stuxnet was a worm believed to be the product of a U.S./Israel collaboration that targeted the Siemens equipment used in Iran’s nuclear centrifuges. It was...

FIFA Hacked Again

FIFA hack
The international soccer league FIFA announced it had been hacked earlier this year and is bracing itself for a potential data breach. This latest cyber incident marks the second major successful hack on the organization, the first reported in 2017. That attack was attributed to a Russian hacking group alternately called Fancy Bear and APT28. News of this new hack...
Facebook
Facebook announced in a blog post on November 5th that it blocked 115 accounts on its platforms after being informed by law enforcement that they may have been “engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior.” Roughly 30 of the Facebook accounts blocked were from Russian or French speakers, with the remaining 85 on its Instagram platform being in English. According to...
The Girl Scouts of Orange County has sent out letters warning almost three thousand members that their personal information may have been compromised in a breach. The letter, which was also filed with the State of California, explained that the organization “became aware that an unauthorized third party illegally gained access” to their email account, but “did not appear...
Cyber Risk
The American business and financial services company Moody’s will start factoring risk of getting hacked into their credit ratings for companies. The move is seen as part of a wider initiative to gauge the risk of cyberattacks and data breaches to companies and their investors. “We've been in the risk management business for a very long time. This is...