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  Robert Meyers, channels solutions architect and fellow of information privacy at One Identity:  “2020 was a very tumultuous year and, in privacy, some good things happened, and some bad things happened. On the good side, we had the NIST Privacy Framework 1.0, and on the bad side, breach after breach, let alone things that aren’t directly privacy related. The problem with privacy programs is there is too much that comes under the category of...

USCellular has suffered a data breach due to hackers gaining access to their CRM. Once the hackers infiltrated the CRM they were then able to view customers' accounts and personal data. USCellular stated in a data breach notification filed to the attorney general's office in Vermont, that the retail store's employees were victims of a phishing attack which tricked them into downloading software onto company computers. Once the software was installed it allowed the attackers...

A report published by Neustar, Inc., titled 'Cyber Threats and Trends: Pandemic Style', outlines any security risks companies were faced with throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The report found a 154% increase in the number of cyber attacks between the years 2019 and 2020. There was particular growth in ransom related DDoS (RDDoS) attacks with a rise in the use of existing attack vectors, which also included web applications. RDDoS are not a new phenomenon, however...

A serious vulnerability has been found in the latest version of GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG)'s free encryption software cryptographic library, Libgcrypt 1.9.0. Libgcrypt is GnuPG's general purpose cryptographic library GnuPG, but a number of other encryption software's also employ it. Libgcrypt 1.9.0 was originally been released last week, on 19th January 2021, and was supposed to be integrated into the latest GnuPG 2.3 release. However, Werner Koch, the author of Libgcrypt and the principal developer...

The Australian government admitted to unintentionally sharing sensitive passenger information with one of the department's consular clients. This data breach occurred on January 24th, in which passenger's full name, gender, date of birth, email address, passport details (number, expiry, issuing country), Australian citizenship status, phone number, current location, and flight booking reference of those booked on the flight had been accidentally copied into an email and sent. The Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and...

Apple has announced it will introduce a new privacy control feature in the spring. This new feature, known as App Tracking Transparency will prevent iPhone apps from secretly shadowing users. A general date has not yet been disclosed, but the new feature will likely be a part of an update that is planned to arrive late March or early April. Apple has delayed the introduction of the new update to give Facebook and other app...

Mozilla's 2020 Internet Health Report deals with some key concerns that could potentially threaten the openness, security and accessibility of the Internet. Over the past year, the Internet has been riddled with problems related to "built-in" racial bias, creating a toxic environment in which discrimination and diversification are rampant. Mozilla believes that the Internet landscape "reflects a particular corpus of web content and the context of software developers, managers, and executives of technology companies who...

A new phishing tool kit has been developed by a cybercrime group which allows criminals to change text and logos in real-time on phishing pages in order to adapt to victims. The kit is called LogoKit, and according to it RiskIQ is has already been seen in use online. RiskIQ has said that the toolkit has been identified on over 300 domains in the past week alone, and more than 700 sites in the past...

Grindr, the worlds largest gay, bisexual and trans dating app has been hit with a large fine in Norway following an alleged breach of data privacy. Norway’s Data Protection Authority (NDPA) announced on Tuesday that they are intending to fine Grindr $11.7m due to the app illegally disclosing user data to advertising firms. The dating app is claiming that the allegations relate back to Norweigan regulations from 2018, when Grindr had different policies in place. The...

Research released on Tuesday revealed that a now-patched TikTok security flaw could have exposed millions of the app's users and their associated phone numbers to attackers who could then use that data for malicious activity. The flaw only affected users who have their phone number linked to their accounts or use their phone numbers to log in to their accounts. If this flaw was successfully exploited then any users who have their phone numbers linked...