The tally of records breached in 2016 (through November) globally was over 2.1 billion, according to IT Governance. With the announcement yesterday of Yahoo’s breach of another 1 billion records, that tally is now up to 3.1...more
12/16/2016
/ Credit Cards ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Email ,
Hackers ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
PHI
Yahoo Inc. announced on December 14th that hackers stole the personal information of more than one billion users, which is in addition to the 500 million accounts compromised that was announced in September....more
12/15/2016
/ Acquisitions ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Email ,
Hackers ,
Passwords ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Verizon ,
Yahoo!
On November 28, 2016, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued an Alert to its listservs that a phishing email is being circulated on “mock HHS Departmental letterhead under the signature of OCR”s Director, Jocelyn Samuels”...more
12/2/2016
/ Business Associates ,
Covered Entities ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Email ,
Hackers ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
HIPAA Audits ,
OCR ,
PHI ,
Phishing Scams
I am watching Game 7 of the World Series, and it is the bottom of the 8th and the score is 6-6. It is very difficult to concentrate on this blog post.
So I am taking the easy way out and reminding you to check the...more
11/4/2016
/ Business Development ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Email ,
Hackers ,
LinkedIn ,
Passwords ,
Phishing Scams ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Privacy Settings ,
Social Networks
I never knew that since 2006, October has been designated as National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month. According to the Department of Health and Human Service’s website, “This year’s Bullying Prevention Awareness Month...more
We have been repeatedly warning our clients and readers about the massive and successful W-2 phishing schemes where hackers impersonate the CEO or CFO and send emails to payroll and/or HR folks in companies requesting W-2...more
6/1/2016
/ Cyber Crimes ,
Email ,
Hackers ,
Identity Theft ,
IRS ,
Payroll Records ,
Phishing Scams ,
Social Security Numbers ,
Sports ,
Tax Fraud ,
W-2
Phishing incidents in February that may have compromised the data of 3,184 patients, including their names, dates of birth, medical record and account numbers, dates of service and medical information is causing Wyoming...more
We all remember the Ashley Madison data breach. The hackers, calling themselves “The Impact Team” requested that the Ashley Madison extramarital affair site, and Cougar Life and Established Men sites be “taken down.” When...more
We have consistently reported about increased phishing attacks through emails that purport to come from high level executives, including CEOs. According to the FBI, the hackers use sophisticated social engineering to spoof...more
This week’s tip is for businesses, and in particular, the human resources, benefits and finance departments of all businesses. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in or where you or located. It doesn’t matter if you have...more
Just another ransomware to worry about—Locky, a ransomware that attacks systems with malicious macros has logged almost a half a million sessions in the U.S....more
Four students attending the University of California, Berkeley, sued Google last week alleging that it violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act by scanning and mining their emails in order to create advertising...more
So I have been in the data privacy and security world for the past 16 years, and I am still amazed at how savvy hacksters are, and how vulnerable we are to their antics. And…how much havoc they can wreak personally and to our...more
The U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York has announced that Alonzo Knowles, (aka Jeff Moxey) was arrested last week. He is alleged to have hacked into celebrity email accounts....more
An anonymous hacker has contacted the New York Post to explain how he was able to hack into the CIA Director’s AOL email account. According to several reports, a high school student and his two friends implemented social...more
10/23/2015
/ AOL ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Email ,
FBI ,
Hackers ,
Telecommunications ,
Twitter
Last Thursday, Governor Jerry Brown signed the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA) into law, which requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant before accessing or searching individuals’ digital...more
10/16/2015
/ American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) ,
Apple ,
Cell Phones ,
Chamber of Commerce ,
Data Privacy ,
ECPA ,
Email ,
Google ,
Microsoft ,
Mobile Devices ,
New Legislation ,
Personal Data ,
Right to Privacy ,
Search Warrant ,
Smartphones ,
Text Messages ,
Warrantless Searches
We previously reported that hackers The Impact Team had posted legitimate detailed information about 36 million adultery website Ashley Madison users. In the wake of the shocking posting of the data last week, two class...more
8/31/2015
/ Adultery ,
Ashley Madison ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Email ,
False Advertising ,
Hackers ,
Internet ,
Marriage ,
Military Service Members ,
Online Platforms ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Spouses ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
The Office of the Inspector General for the State Department recently confirmed in a Memo that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent emails with classified information in them through her private email account...more
Last week, LinkedIn agreed to pay $13 million and change some of the site’s features to settle a class action lawsuit filed against it in 2013 alleging that it used the Add Connections feature to access users’ email contacts...more
If you have never taken a close look at Verizon’s yearly Data Breach Investigations Report, we highly recommend that you do. It just came out, and is once again, a very informative read....more