Tag: Infosecurity

(Oct 21, 2019) A report from the U.S. Veterans Affairs Inspector General has revealed a regional office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, exposed the personal data of an undisclosed number of patients to more than 25,000 unauthorized users, Nextgov reports. The IG did not classify the data exposure as a breach but did say the information was placed "at unnecessary risk." Medical records and documents were revealed, along with names, addresses, birthdates and phone numbers dating back to 2016. "The inadequate protection... Read More

(Oct 18, 2019) The American Civil Liberties Union announced it joined a coalition of more than 40 advocacy groups on a letter urging the U.S. House Judiciary and Intelligence committees to consider amending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before reauthorizing the law. Written in response to FISA documents that "reveal significant privacy violations," the letter asked for lawmakers to strongly and carefully consider ensuring Section 702 prohibits "warrantless 'backdoor' searches" and "'... Read More

(Oct 18, 2019) The Hill reports the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has filed a report that revealed the Consumer Product Safety Commission mishandled and disclosed the personal data of 30,000 consumers. Street addresses, ages and genders were among the information disclosed by the CPSC during failed data purges between December 2017 and March 2019. In its report, the committee recommended CPSC improve measures to protect personal data. Meanwhile, WalletHub published research on ... Read More

(Oct 18, 2019) Ransomware attacks targeting Canadian organizations are on the rise, CBC News reports. Experts say the health care field, in particular, as well as some municipalities, has been targeted due to the sensitivity of records kept. A recent survey of Canadian organizations found 88% experienced a data breach over the past year, while 82% reported an “increase in overall attack volume.” Ransomware accounted for 14% of breaches in that survey. It’s unclear why Canadian firms are increasingly being targ... Read More

(Oct 17, 2019) Quartz India reports a recent study has revealed organizations in India are struggling to keep up with properly responding to growing cybersecurity issues. In Cisco's 2019 Asia Pacific CISO Benchmark Study, 34% of Indian respondents claimed to have "cybersecurity fatigue." The exhaustion stems from the growing number of cybersecurity incidents and demands while adopting new technology is another factor. According to the study, Indian respondents said the most pressing issues with adopting techno... Read More

(Oct 17, 2019) ZDNet reports new research from Unisys shows that Australian chief information security officers and chief executive officers differ in opinion and awareness when it comes to cybersecurity. In a survey, 63% of CISOs acknowledged their organization dealt with a data breach in the last year, while only 6% of CEOs concurred. "What the study found is pretty much a disconnect and lack of communication between the two very important roles of [CISO] and [CEO]," Unisys Australia and New Zealand Industry... Read More

(Oct 17, 2019) Singapore's Personal Data Protection Commission has issued fines to five organizations for violations of the Personal Data Protection Act. Amicus Solutions and a financial consultant were hit with $48,000 and $10,000 fines respectively as each failed to notify and obtain consent for the disclosure and subsequent sale of personal data. Fines of $7,000, $4,000 and $1,000 were handed down to XDel, Zero1 and Advance Home Tutors respectively for a lack of proper protections for personal information i... Read More

(Oct 16, 2019) MediaPost reports Apple has defended its sharing of private search browser data, which was reported last week by Reclaim the Net. The prior report claimed Apple was sharing browser data with Google and Chinese tech company Tencent. The embedded sharing function, which is built into the Safari browser on Macs, iPhones and iPads, is mentioned in Safari's privacy policy. Login passwords for banks, email addresses and social media accounts are among the information that can allegedly be accessed and... Read More

(Oct 15, 2019) The New Democrat Coalition, which features more than 100 U.S. House Democrats, is planning to announce support of a federal U.S. privacy bill sponsored by Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., Bloomberg reports. DelBene's proposal includes consumer opt-outs for data collection, storage and sharing. The bill also calls for data subject consent on the use of sensitive data and requires companies to make privacy policies more simple and transparent. Meanwhile, Internet Association President and CEO Michael ... Read More

(Oct 15, 2019) ZDNet reports artificial intelligence researchers from big tech company Nvidia and King's College London will debut a new federated learning system that will allow doctors to collaborate on cases without sharing patient data. The new system will help neural networks function on decentralized data that follows an algorithmic model at different locations. The anonymized data is created through partial system contributions from network participants and the injection of white noise.Full Story... Read More