With the digital world now deeply rooted in the fabric of society, we are increasingly living double lives. There is our immediate, physical existence – and there is our digital identity. Most people are more familiar with the first. But as our information and behavior go digital, a more complete picture of who we are [...]
News agencies are reporting a possible second data breach using flaws in the SolarWinds software, this time with suspected Chinese hackers infiltrating U.S. payroll agency systems. Sources have disclosed another cybersecurity breach in the SolarWinds software that took place last year, affecting the National Finance Center, a federal payroll agency. Officials fear the breach might [...]
During the coronavirus pandemic, there’s been a direct correlation with the rise of online activity, data breaches and identity theft. As many Americans' personally identifiable information goes digital, it’s becoming increasingly vulnerable to hacks and theft by cybercriminals who profit from access to online accounts. This past year, in particular, internet services have experienced anywhere [...]
The news cycle has been dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the presidential election, nationwide protests and a whole lot more. With all that transpired over the last few months, and even with the SolarWinds cyberattack making headlines, it might be easy to forget that data breaches and hacks continue to expose the personal information of [...]
Identity theft has been around for a long time, and it continues to evolve and adapt with the times. With the variety of scams out there, it’s easy to get bogged down in rumors and half-truths. When it comes to identity theft, you need to avoid believing misinformation and spreading it to others. Here are [...]
Cybersecurity experts are still trying to determine the scale of damage wrought by a recent cyberattack using SolarWinds software on the U.S. government and Fortune 500 companies. The attack aimed at the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments as well as international companies continued for months until it was discovered by FireEye, a cybersecurity company that [...]
The FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are investigating a cyberattack by Russian-linked hackers that have infiltrated the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments. The cyberespionage campaign is being described at one of the largest hacks against U.S. government agencies in the last five years. Sources close to the investigation are reporting Russia is behind [...]
Home Depot officials have agreed to a $17.5 million settlement for a 2014 data breach that exposed the information of 40 million customers. The home improvement company reached the agreement with the attorney generals of 46 states and the District of Columbia. The settlement stems from a 2014 data breach where hackers were able to [...]
A malware attack is suspected in a recent Barnes & Noble data breach that exposed customer information. The attack also led to some customers not being able to access their e-reader Nook libraries and the temporary shutdown of cash registers at the bookstores’ physical locations. Barnes & Noble officials said the cyberattack took place earlier [...]
E-commerce company Shopify recently disclosed the discovery of a data breach that affected customer data and transaction details for fewer than 200 merchants who use their platform. Shopify has reported the data breach to law enforcement including the FBI and other international agencies. According to the statement, two rogue employees on the customer support team [...]
Rise of the Gaming Industry and the Free-to-Play Model Over the past decade, the gaming industry has seen the rise of a new trend: the free-to-play (F2P) business model. While games released under this model require no upfront cost to play, game developers are making money by giving gamers the option of making in-game purchases [...]
A ransomware attack has exposed the commercial and personal employee data of Artech Information Systems, one of the largest IT staffing agencies in the nation. The data breach occurred Jan. 5 – 8 after a bad actor gained access to company servers through an employee user account. Company officials said Social Security numbers, medical information, [...]
A former Uber executive has been charged with covering up a data breach affecting 57 million app users and drivers. Joe Sullivan, Uber’s former chief security officer, is facing obstruction of justice and other charges stemming from a 2016 data breach. The breach occurred when two men hacked a third-party server to steal the personal [...]
Medical records are a prime target for cybercriminals, and data breaches are a frequent occurrence in the health care industry. These records are valuable because they may contain a large variety of personal information, including your name, address, insurance information, Social Security number (SSN) and medical history. Medical records can be used to commit many [...]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued a warning on a popular new cryptocurrency scam that tricks victims into sending money. The FTC warning comes after high-profile celebrities’ and national leaders’ Twitter accounts were hacked earlier this month with scammers sending out fake tweets telling followers to send money using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Victims ranged [...]
An MGM Resorts data breach that exposed the personal information of hotel guests, including high-profile celebrities and business leaders, has affected millions more guests than originally thought, according to new reports. The MGM Resorts data breach was first reported early last year with more than 10.6 million guests affected. However, this month, a hacker placed [...]
As headlines focus on coronavirus-related scams, the related healthcare industry also continues to be a top target for cybercriminals. This year alone more than 3 million patient records have been exposed. Here are the top-five healthcare data breaches so far this year. 1. Health Share of Oregon More than 654,000 patients had their records breached [...]
How expensive is a data breach for a big company? A recent report by Audit Analytics provides insight to this question in a study that sampled 639 cybersecurity breach incidents at public companies in the last nine years. The report, “Trends in Cybersecurity Breach Disclosures,” found the cost of a data breach directly relates to the life cycle of an incident and on the sensitivity of the compromised customer information. According to the study, the longer the life [...]
Business clients applying for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans with Bank of America may have had their personal and business information exposed in a data breach, according to a letter the bank sent to affected customers. The data breach occurred on April 22 as Bank of America uploaded customers’ PPP loan applications to the Small [...]
The hacktivist group Anonymous has taken credit for a cyberattack that took down the Minneapolis Police Department website to protest the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Before the cyberattack, hacktivist group members allegedly released a video on Facebook saying they were targeting the police department in order to seek justice for Floyd. [...]
Illinois residents filing for coronavirus-related unemployment using the state’s new online system might have had their personal information exposed. Gov. J.B. Pritzker, D, announced the Illinois Department of Employment Security experienced a system “glitch” after launching this week. The system, a new online portal, has been set up for contractors and self-employed residents filing for [...]
The FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have issued a warning that China is attempting to hack the networks of U.S. organizations, pharmaceutical companies and health care professionals working on coronavirus research and vaccines. The federal agencies called research institutions, companies and others working on the COVID-19 response “prime targets” for Chinese cyberattacks. Federal [...]
Protecting your identity is an essential aspect of maintaining healthy credit and financial security. This is especially true in the age of COVID-19 scams, data breaches, cybersecurity threats and identity theft, when becoming a victim of fraud can do lasting damage to your credit and finances. The longer that identity theft continues unnoticed, the greater [...]
Zoom has acquired Keybase, a social networking service startup with encryption expertise, as part of the videoconferencing service’s plan to increase security during the coronavirus pandemic. Zoom CEO Eric Yuan recently announced the acquisition, calling it “another milestone in Zoom’s 90-day plan to further strengthen the security of our video communications platform.” Zoom did not [...]
Cybercriminals are targeting research labs working on COVID-19 treatments and vaccines. Three research firms have recently experienced data breaches, including the Wuhan lab at the epicenter of the pandemic. Hackers attacked the Wuhan Institute of Virology to gain access to employee email credentials. The credentials have been leaked online. The Wuhan Institute of Virology attack [...]
A data breach in the Small Business Association (SBA) loan application portal may have exposed the personal information of thousands of businesses last month as they submitted emergency loan applications during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials recently announced. The SBA has seen a large influx of applications from struggling businesses seeking emergency loans due to the [...]
Cruise lines Princess Cruises and Holland America Line recently revealed they suffered a data breach, another hit to the cruise line industry that has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. Officials for the cruise lines, both owned by parent company Carnival Corp., said in May 2019 they identified suspicious activity on their servers and launched an [...]
Federal officials say the goal of a recent cyberattack on the U.S. Health and Human Services Department was to spread disinformation and disrupt the agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The cyberattack aimed to overload the agency’s servers by using automated users, or bots, to create millions of hits over a short period of time [...]
A data breach has exposed more than 900,000 Virgin Media customers’ personal information – including whether they’ve accessed pornography links. Virgin Media officials recently disclosed hackers were able to access customers’ personal information through an unsecured database. An unauthorized user accessed the database at least once after April 2019, officials said. The hackers had access [...]
T-Mobile has once again been hacked in a data breach. Company officials are alerting customers to a recent data breach that has put their personal information at risk. The newest data breach comes after the company experienced two data breaches in the last two years. T-Mobile reported a data breach exposing personal information of about [...]
More than 10 million guests who’ve stayed at MGM Resorts, including celebrities and high-profile CEOs, have had their personal information hacked in a data breach. MGM officials recently confirmed a data breach that exposed the information of about 10.6 million guests. MGM operates numerous properties in Las Vegas with celebrities such as Justin Bieber and [...]
The Equifax data breach that exposed the personal data of 147 million people was the work of Chinese military hackers, according to a recent indictment made public by the Justice Department. The Justice Department announced formal charges against four members of the 54th Research Institute, a division of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The four [...]
Microsoft recently announced a data breach affecting one of its customer databases and exposing millions of records, including the personally identifying information (PII) of some customers who may have used Microsoft support since 2005. Between Dec. 5 and Dec. 31, a change made to an internal customer support database’s network security contained misconfigured security rules, [...]
Hackers are becoming more and more sophisticated in their phishing email attempts to steal personal and company data. The number of data breaches caused by phishing is increasing with hackers finding their way into a company’s network using phished information such as employees’ stolen credentials, according to a recent report from cybersecurity organization Crowdstrike. In [...]
A federal court has approved a $380.5 million Equifax settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit stemming from the credit-reporting firm’s 2017 massive data breach that put almost half the U.S population’s personal information at risk. In the approved agreement, Equifax officials are placing $380.5 million into a fund for consumers affected by the data breach. [...]
A Texas school district is out $2.3 million after falling victim to a phishing email scam. The Manor Independent School District recently announced it is working with the Manor Police Department and FBI to track down a scammer who siphoned about $2.3 million from the district after a single employee responded to a phishing email. [...]
Landry’s Inc., the parent company of more than 600 restaurants, hotels and casinos, has announced a data breach exposing customers’ card payment information. Company officials reported a hacker accessed and installed malware to their network supporting payment processing, which is used by servers to swipe and charge customer credit cards. They said encryption technology made [...]
The year 2019 saw thousands of data breaches of all types and sizes. Billions of personal records were exposed, caused by malicious hacks and organizational incompetence. The public has had their payment information stolen, personal data leaked and private messages exposed. Data breaches have been on an upward trend since the early 2000s, and the [...]
Facebook is ending the year with another data breach, this time with 267 million users’ personal information exposed. The monumental data breach comes after cybersecurity firm Comparitech and researcher Bob Diachenko found a database with the names, phone numbers and Facebook IDs for about 267 million users open on the web. The database was not [...]
Officials at LifeLabs, the largest diagnostics and testing services laboratory in Canada, recently announced they paid hackers an undisclosed ransom to retrieve more than 15 million stolen patients’ records. The laboratory was breached last month with hackers removing patient data and requiring a ransom in order for the company to regain the records. Personal information [...]
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro recently announced a $110,000 settlement with the traveling websites Orbtiz and Expedia after a data breach that put the credit card information of almost 21,000 state residents at risk. Shapiro lead an investigation into the data breach that discovered a hacker was able to add malware to steal credit card [...]
The Cucamonga Valley Water District, a water district in Southern California, is informing customers of a data breach that might have put their credit card information at risk. Water district officials said a server operated by outside vendor Central Square, which the water district uses to collect one-time credit card payments, was breached by an [...]
The highest profile data breaches and cyberattacks often involve big businesses with millions of customers. But private companies aren’t the only organizations that are vulnerable to cybercrime – local governments are also popular targets for criminals. According to Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigation, 16% of all 2018 data breaches involved public sector entities including state [...]
SMS communications company TrueDialog left millions of text messages exposed and unprotected in an online database that security researchers discovered last month, according to reports. TrueDialog is a communications company that enables clients, including private businesses and universities, to send text messages to customers, students and other individuals. The service allows message recipients to respond [...]
The Mexican food chain restaurant On the Border has announced a data breach that put customers’ payment information at risk in 28 states. On the Border officials said the breach, discovered by the company on Nov. 14, exposed customers’ personal information, including their names, credit card numbers and credit card verification codes. The breach came [...]
Wireless carrier T-Mobile recently discovered a data breach that allowed hackers to access the personal information of more than one million customers, the company recently announced. The breach exposed the personal data of customers with prepaid wireless accounts in which they paid a predetermined fee ahead of time for their wireless usage. According to T-Mobile, [...]
The head of cybersecurity at Capital One has been removed following this summer’s data breach that exposed the personal information of more than 100 million customers. Michael Johnson has transitioned from Capital One’s chief information security officer to a new role as senior vice president and special advisor for cybersecurity, according to the company. The [...]
With all the recent data breaches involving smartphone apps, here is a compilation of breaches that might have put your personally identifiable information at risk: A white-hat ethical hacker reported an Instagram vulnerability in the login form and Sync Contacts feature that puts user accounts at risk. The flaw allowed a hacker to create fraudulent [...]
Top U.S. government officials living abroad have recently been targeted by hackers through Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging application. An internal investigation by WhatsApp found numerous U.S. officials in at least 20 countries have become victims of data breaches through hacking software through the app. The hackers allegedly took control of users’ smartphones in order to access [...]
The 7-Eleven Fuel app suffered a data breach in Australia last week that exposed users’ personal details. The app uses customer location and pricing data to help drivers find the best gas prices at local 7-Elevens, and lock in the low prices by prepaying. A customer reported the breach to 7-Eleven when he discovered he [...]
Two hackers have pled guilty to stealing 57 million files containing customer and driver personal information from Uber, which company officials failed to report to police for almost a year. Hackers Brandon Glover and Vasile Mereacre recently plead guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion charges for their roles in a 2016 data breach affecting Uber [...]
Do you play Words with Friends? If so, your personal information might be at risk. Mobile game publisher Zynga has reported a data breach affecting more than 218 million Words with Friends players. Company officials said a hacker was able to access players’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, login IDs, Facebook IDs, and account IDs. [...]
The food delivery service DoorDash has announced a data breach affecting about 4.9 million consumers, merchants, and drivers. DoorDash officials said the data breach occurred when an unauthorized user was able to access information such as consumers’ names, order histories, phone numbers, and the last four digits of credit card numbers along with partial numbers [...]
A white-hat ethical hacker recently found an Instagram vulnerability that might have exposed users’ personal information. Hacker @ZHacker13 found the vulnerability in Instagram’s login form and Sync Contacts feature. The hacker was able to put in phone numbers that the platform validated as linked to active accounts. New fraudulent accounts were set up using the [...]
During the last 10 years more than 169 million people in the United States have had their health records exposed, according to a new study. The study, published in the “Annals of Internal Medicine,” found that about 150 million people had their Social Security numbers, drivers’ license numbers, and dates of birth compromised through data [...]
The head of an Ecuadorian data analytics firm has been arrested after leaving the personal and financial information of almost the entire country’s population unprotected online. William Roberto Garces, general manager of Novaestrat, was arrested as part of an investigation into allegations his company left a server with the personal records of about 20.8 million [...]
Five men have been charged with stealing millions of dollars from military members and veterans as part of an international identity theft and fraud ring that used stolen personal information to gain access to Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs benefit sites. The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Frederick Brown, Robert Wayne Boling Jr., [...]
The numerous recent data breaches have exposed the personal information of millions of people and put them at risk of having their information bought and sold on the dark web. The dark web is where cybercriminals go to anonymously buy and sell information – such as names, passwords, credit card numbers, and Social Security numbers [...]
A coordinated cyberattack has taken at least 23 government agencies in Texas offline. Most of the agencies affected by the cyberattack were smaller local governments, according to the Texas Department of Information Resources. The cyberattack has been tracked to a single threat actor. Officials first became aware of the attack when they had trouble accessing [...]
Officials of the credit monitoring site Credit Karma are blaming a “technical issue” for a data breach that exposed users’ credit and personal information to other site users. Users began posting to Reddit and Twitter this week to point out the issue, saying when they logged into the site they were given access to other [...]
Apple is offering a $1 million “bug bounty” to any hacker who can take over an Apple device without being supplied information from the device’s owner. Apple Security Chief Ivan Krstic announced the $1 million bounty during the Black Hat conference held in Las Vegas last week. The $1 million bounty is a significant increase [...]
The dark web has been around for a long time, but it’s recently risen in pop culture — and for many people, it’s a relatively new concept. Increasingly frequent data breaches and cases of identity theft have put the dark web on our radars, but the subject remains strange and unclear to many people. As [...]
An ex-Amazon employee who hacked Capital One consumer data might also have breached information from Ford, British telecommunications provider Vodafone, and the IT company Infoblox along with Michigan State University and the Ohio Department of Transportation. Paige Thompson, a former Amazon Web Services employee, was recently arrested for hacking into Capital One’s customer information stored [...]
An ex-Amazon employee has been arrested for allegedly hacking the account information of more than 100 million Capital One customers. Paige Thompson, of Seattle, is accused of exposing customers’ personal information – including names, addresses, credit scores, bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, and Canadian Social Insurance numbers – and attempting to share the information [...]
Equifax is expected to pay about $700 million for a data breach that put almost half the U.S. population’s personal information at risk. The credit-reporting firm is working to finalize an agreement that includes a $700 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, numerous state attorney general offices, and a class-action [...]
Social media giant Facebook has agreed to a $5 billion fine – the largest in Federal Trade Commission history – for violating users’ privacy. The record-breaking fine comes after the FTC began investigating the company last spring after political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica gained access to almost 87 million Facebook users’ data without their permission. [...]
Sprint has confirmed hackers were able to access account information through the Samsung website late last month, making it the second time this year Sprint customer data has been exposed. The most recent breach occurred last month through a Samsung webpage that allowed customers to add a line to their accounts. Hackers were able steal [...]
Identity thieves use stolen personal information to open fraudulent accounts, empty bank accounts, and wreak havoc on their victims’ credit and finances. If you become a victim of identity theft, it’s important to catch it early. The sooner you find out your identity has been stolen, the sooner you can take action and prevent any [...]
British Airways and the hotel chain Marriott are facing record-breaking fines for failing to protect customers’ personal information in two separate data breaches. Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office this month issued a $230 million (£183.4 million) fine – the largest ever imposed by the ICO – against British Airways for a data breach last year that [...]
Four out of five physicians have experienced some type of cyberattack as health care continues to be the No. 1 industry affected by data breaches, according to a new report by the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Councils. The report highlights the increasing and costly trend of data breaches in the health care industry, [...]
Hackers are going after organizations and businesses with a vengeance as detections of ransomware attacks are up 500% this year compared to this time last year. The staggering increase in the number of detections stems from cybercriminals ramping up their efforts against organizations and businesses by preying on weak credentials, broad user access, and infrastructure [...]
A federal appeals court in San Francisco has ruled a lawsuit against Facebook for a data breach that compromised the accounts of almost 30 million users can proceed. Facebook had sought to dismiss the class-action lawsuit on the basis that the company wasn’t liable as the victim of a cyberattack and the information obtained in [...]
About 95,000 Delaware residents have had their personal information compromised in a data breach at an insurance provider that lasted nine years, according to news reports. Dental and vision insurer Dominion National recently reported the data breach, which the company said began in August 2010 but wasn’t discovered until April this year. Dominion National found [...]
Two U.S. medical testing companies are reporting almost 20 million customers have had their personal and financial data exposed because of a security breach at a third-party vendor. Quest Diagnostics reported 11.9 million patients have been affected by the breach with LabCorp indicating 7.7 million customers are at risk. The data breach occurred at the [...]
Last week, an enormous database of email addresses and passwords was publicly exposed on the internet, leaving hundreds of millions of people vulnerable to fraud, scams, and hacking attempts. The database, known as “Collection #1,” could be the largest recorded public data breach in history. First reported by cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt, Collection #1 contains [...]
Cybersecurity threats were a major theme in 2018, as last year saw some of the biggest data breaches in history. Security flaws and illegal hacks exposed the personal data of millions and shook up some of the world’s largest organizations. Ultimately, there’s no foolproof way to protect your personal data when it’s in the hands [...]
Marriott International, one of the largest hotel chains in the world, today revealed its discovery of a massive data breach that exposed the personal information of up to 500 million guests. The data breach leaves Marriott guests vulnerable to account fraud, identity theft, and other criminal activities. Marriott says an unauthorized party has been accessing [...]
The information contained in your credit report should be fair and accurate. After all, it determines your credit score and helps lenders, creditors, and other companies decide whether to do business with you. Unfortunately, credit report inaccuracies are extremely common. In 2013, the FTC reported that one in five Americans had discovered an inaccuracy on [...]
When it comes to protecting your online accounts, passwords are one of the most important lines of defense. Your finances, credit score, and identity are all protected by the passwords you keep. Unfortunately, many people practice poor password security, which can leave them vulnerable. While passwords aren’t foolproof against thieves and hackers, using good practices [...]
Getting an unexpected call from a debt collector can be an intimidating experience. Often, debt collectors will try to pressure you into paying them over the phone on the spot. But even if you’re swimming in debt, you have rights when a debt collector calls, and you should always do your homework and exercise your [...]
Following last year’s enormous Equifax data breach that compromised the personal information of 143 million Americans, consumers were left wondering how to protect themselves from fraud and identity theft. One solution is credit freezes, which prevent thieves from using your credit to open fraudulent accounts in your name. But freezing your credit with all three [...]
Criminals with a lot of time on their hands are committing a con that can take years to pay off and sounds like something out of the future: Synthetic identity fraud. Instead of the traditional identity theft of stealing an existing identity from someone and posing as them, synthetic identity fraud criminals create a new [...]
Your credit card is one of the most valuable items in your wallet, and you rightfully might feel frantic if it’s been lost or stolen. But unlike some other pieces of property, federal law protects your credit card. Replacing it might be a pain, but if you act fast you can limit the damage done. [...]
Each year, millions of Americans fall victim to identity theft. It’s a serious threat, as thieves can use your personal information to open new accounts, claim tax refunds, file fraudulent Medicare claims, and more. Even if your identity isn’t stolen, thieves may try to use your personal information to gain access to your bank account [...]
Debit cards are one of the worst ways to use your money if you want your ID protected. Because it’s linked directly to your bank account, anyone with your card information can instantly withdraw all the money from your account. If that doesn’t scare you enough, there’s the fact that debit cards don’t have near [...]
Despite an increasing focus on the importance of cybersecurity, organizations continue to lose consumer data to hackers and data breaches on a regular basis. It’s a widespread problem that will likely continue to grow and leave you vulnerable to fraud and identity theft. While you may know the basics of keeping yourself protected (not sharing [...]
Data breaches are just about a daily occurrence. Whether it’s at a hospital, business school, energy provider or any other business with personal data on file, hackers are finding more ways to steal information and possibly later use it for fraud. Checking a credit report each month to make sure thieves haven’t opened accounts in [...]
Online shopping offers convenience and great deals, but it also leaves you vulnerable to hackers and data breaches. Criminals are constantly trying to break into the databases of online retailers to access consumers’ personal information and debit or credit card numbers. You should take steps to protect yourself online, and that includes determining the best [...]
Children are just as vulnerable to identity theft as adults, but they don’t have access to the same system of checks and alerts. By falsifying birth dates, thieves can use your child’s Social Security number to open credit cards, take out loans, apply for government benefits, and more. When it’s done to a child, identity [...]
