NEWS & UPDATES

Google has been locking horns with the U.S federal government once again over the storage of data abroad.

It’s believed Google lost their third dispute in court over the matter, and lengthy legal battles remain at large.

The disputes arose when Google challenged the validity of a search warrant for looking through company data that was stored abroad. This asks the question about who has jurisdiction for information held overseas, and therefore which laws apply to the stored data.
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Last October, the Australian Red Cross Blood Service had 1.74 GB of backup data compromised. This reportedly included 1.3 million rows and 645 tables containing personal information belonging to some 550,000 online blood donor applications.

The following details were reportedly made publicly available: Name; Gender; Postal address; Email address; Gender; Phone number; Date of Birth; Country of Birth; Blood Type; Type of donation.

Other information relating to blood donations like donor eligibility answers and appointments were also revealed. Some of this can certainly be classed as very sensitive information indeed.
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Insurance and financial services giant Nationwide Mutual Insurance has agreed to pay out around £4 million to settle a colossal data breach that reportedly exposed personal data belonging to 1.27 million of their consumers.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance was attacked by hackers who managed to obtain a haul of personal data, including: Social security numbers; Driving licence details; Credit scores; and other personally identifiable information.

With this information, hackers and cybercriminals can be equipped with the tools required to commit identity fraud and therefore inflict huge harm and disruption to lives of the victims.
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At the capital of the United States, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that customers are permitted to sue CareFirst for a data breach that reportedly compromised 1.1 million of their customers’ personal information.

A relatively small number of customers brought the class action (group action) lawsuit, alleging that the health insurance provider had attributed to the breach for their carelessness and lack of cybersecurity.
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Well-known online price comparison website MoneySupermarket.com has been issued a hefty fine by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for reportedly sending millions of unwanted emails to customers who’d opted out of receiving marketing correspondence.

The company offers to compare prices for insurance, energy, credit cards, savings etc., and it’s likely that there’s always a myriad of deals and offers in these sectors; but many customers don’t want an abundance of emails constantly updating them of new deals. As with all newsletters, customers have a choice to opt-out, but in this case, MoneySupermarket.com appeared to ignore them under the reportedly ‘false pretence‘ of a legitimate update.
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Data breaches continue to happen more and more often, and there still doesn’t seem to be all that much being done to stop them.

We don’t need to remind companies about the worst data breaches; we’re sure they’re fresh in peoples’ minds having been splashed all over the news for so long.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the biggest data breaches as ranked by cybersecurity journalist, Anas Baig.
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The Kansas Department of Commerce’s employment service has reportedly been hacked with almost a total of 6.5 million records stolen.

The agency’s job-seeking division Job Link Alliance-TS was breached and its databases were illegally accessed. As the organisation’s nature is to help people find and apply for jobs, they hold a wealth of information including individuals’ personal contact information, résumés (CVs) and social security numbers. In the U.S, the social security number is one of the most sensitive types of information that can be stolen. With a social security number, criminals can steal a person’s identity.
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According to Help Net Security, the cost of data breaches has declined by 10% from 2016 to 2017.

It’s bizarre given that all we ever read about and hear is the increasing costs of data breaches to businesses! We should also consider the fact that 2017 isn’t over yet!

The Ponemon Institute study (sponsored by IMB Security) conducts independent research on privacy, data protection and information security policy. They aim to inform companies and organisations on how to improve their data protection initiatives and therefore enhance their reputation as a trusted organisation who are being proactive in data protection.
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In what could be the country’s largest ever data breach incident, Jio Reliance may have compromised 100 million users’ records after information was allegedly stolen and put online.

The data in question was put on an independent website called Magicapk, but has since been removed.  The information reportedly included: Full names; Mobile contact numbers; Email addresses; Aadhaar numbers; and SIM card activation dates & times.

This is one huge data breach incident; if its authenticity is to be established…
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Hard Rock Hotels & Casino has been hit by a cyber-attack that occurred through a third-party hotel reservation system.

A cyber-attack is thought to have happened on 10^th August 2016 where a hotel reservation system, run by Sabre Hospitality Solutions SynXis, was breached. When the breach was discovered, Sabre informed Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos of the breach; but this wasn’t until June 2017.

That’s a long time to pass before a breach is identified…
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According to a new study led by a researcher at a U.S. business school, large teaching hospitals are more susceptible to data breaches.

The study, led by John Hopkins Carey Business School, unsurprisingly found that 30 of the hospitals in the study had experienced data breaches at least twice since 2009. The study published in the Jama Internal Medicine Journal found that in at least one of those healthcare institutions, over four million patients’ data was compromised.
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Although data breaches have been rife for decades, the number of incidents in the U.S. increased by 40% from 2015 to 2016, according to Bloomberg Technology. This figure may be reflective of U.K. trends as well.

Eva Casey Velasquez, Chief Executive Officer of the Identity Theft Resource Centre, highlighted the crux of data breaches:

“…we are extremely confident that breaches are undiscovered and under-reported, and we don’t know the full scope.”

However, she goes onto say that it isn’t the worst-case scenario they’re looking at; it’s the best-case.
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