We focus on the latest news surrounding data breaches, leaks and hacks plus daily internet security articles.
If you were a victim of the Marriott data hack, you may be worried about the uncertainties surrounding the event.
It has to be remembered that this was a huge, huge breach that affected some 500 million customers worldwide. Data may have been vulnerable and exposed for four years. Data breached included passport information, which is incredibly serious. Partial payment card information is also understood to have been exposed for some.
With the revelations that the company may never know who was behind the devastating data breach, what can the victims do to feel safe? All we can do as data breach lawyers is help you claim compensation as a victim of the breach.
It can be a huge problem if universities are hacked. Reports suggest that more needs to be done when it comes to educational cyber defence, as recent reports have confirmed that white hat hackers managed to easily break into systems.
According to media reports, white hat hackers managed to gain access to “high value” data from universities in hours. In case you’re not sure, “white hat hackers” are essentially hackers who break into systems for non-malicious proposes. They often inform the organisations they have hacked so they can improve their security. They’re often security specialists themselves.
We’ve seen the damage that university data breaches can cause. We continue to run an action for victims of the University of Greenwich Data Leak. In that case, a wealth of personal and sensitive data was exposed.
Last month, apologies and testimonies took place in relation to the massive Marriott cyber attack that saw some 500 million people’s records exposed.
Marriott International Inc.’s Chief executive, Arne Sorenson, reportedly appeared before a U.S. Senate committee to testify. As part of a written testimony, an apology was issued, although the company is said to have declined to comment on the developments.
There are stark differences between how the U.S. deal with companies in the wake of huge data breaches and how the U.K. deals with them. Although we have the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who can issue fines in the millions under GDPR, the government rarely gets involved in the same way the U.S. does. However, victims in the U.K. can still be eligible to claim data breach compensation. This is important to remember.
Given the scale of this growing market, which is becoming increasingly monetised with in-game purchases often the norm now, we may see increases in online gaming data breach incidents.
When you look under the surface of the gaming industry, there are a number of reasons to feel concerned. The revelations about Fortnite hacking (or Fortnite cracking as it’s often referred to) is worrying. Some youngsters are making a mint by hacking into accounts and then making use of the often-hard-earned digital property the original account user had amassed as they sell accounts on.
Online gaming is on the rise. This could put a bigger target on their back for the cybercriminals and fraudsters who can exploit gamers with ransom demands and account takeovers.
The (PFEW) Police Federation of England and Wales data breach incidents were announced earlier this month, and they’re potentially huge. The PFEW cyber attacks may have affected 120,000 police employees.
Although PFEW say that they don’t believe any information was exposed, they cannot rule it out. For the potential victims of the breaches, this isn’t helpful. It’s hard enough these days being on the police force with constant cuts and under-staffing.
This kind of added stress in the current environment of policing isn’t helpful at all.
The dangers of the Quora data breach cannot be understated, especially when the incident reportedly affected up to 100m users!
Just yesterday we wrote about the issue of reusing passwords and user credentials across multiple sites. Doing so can put you at far greater risks than you may even realise. One of the key things it means is that your credentials breached in an attack could be used to break into other platforms you use. Facebook is a prime example with billions of users and a feature that lets you log into other platforms using your Facebook credentials.
On that basis, the dangers of an incident like this Quora one simply cannot be understated.
We can help you make a claim for compensation as a victim of the massive Marriott data leak. Here’s a little about the latest since news broke of the incident.
OK, so we have some 500 million customers across the world who are potentially affected by the leak. The leak stems from a breach of their Starwood reservation systems since 2014 and has resulted in a wealth of data being exposed. As well as personal information, account details and bank card information has also been exposed.
Marriott has taken a number of steps in the aftermath of the breach, and legal actions have been initiated.
The Coffee Meets Bagel data breach was unfortunately revealed on Valentine’s Day. I.e. a dating app revealed a breach on the day of love and romance…
With the data breach reportedly having happened on 11th February 2019, I suppose its just a case of bad timing that notifications ended up being on Valentine’s Day. Either way, the American-based dating service that is used in the UK has suffered a breach.
This isn’t the first dating website that has been targeted for a data breach. We doubt it will be the last as well.
There’s been another huge security incident announced. This time it’s the 500px data breach that may have affected all 15 million of its worldwide users.
The Canada-based online photography networking platform (that also has an app) is understood to have identified security issue last year. However, it’s taken some six months for the organisation to discover that they’ve been breached.
The length of time that’s passed is particularly worrying. It means that victims of the 500px data breach may have already been targeted by criminals. Victims may have had no idea that their data had been exposed given that news of the breach has only just hit the headlines.
The typical answer as to the popular question “is your phone recording you?” is often “no”, according to many. However, you may not be aware that some things can be recorded, and you may not be aware of it.
According to a recent investigation by TechCrunch and The App Analyst, some popular apps may be recording user data without proper – or more explicit – permission or understanding. The investigation reportedly looked at a range of apps and found ways in which the companies or the developers could record and store data they may not have permission for.
That’s worrying; especially in the era of continual breaches linked to apps, and ongoing concerns as to how much the likes of Siri or Alexa are taking in when they’re waiting for our commands…
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