Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog

“The state who funds hackers” – Rumours of hackers who were sponsored by the state to hack Yahoo accounts

More than half a billion Yahoo user accounts were hacked in 2014. The hack is the latest of the recent big hacking scandals, like Last.fm in March 2012, dating websites Ashley Madison and Beautiful People, and a whole host of others.

However, the popular email server’s hack is thought to be the ‘largest internet theft on record’ (source). The personal data that was hacked included the names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of births, and passwords of affected users. What is more concerning is the suggestion of a “state-sponsored actor” being behind the cyber theft. Intelligent agencies across the globe are investigating the matter.
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Webcam flaws allow people to peer into other people’s lives!

We all know our daily lives are being monitored in this day and age, it’s something we have come to accept. CCTV is on just about every corner, especially in busy cities and town centres.

Then we have internet security cameras in offices and homes as well nowadays, but many of these are unprotected and may be vulnerable to hackers. A bit of knowledge could allow a person to hack in to the stream of a webcam and watch the unsuspecting victims when we’re at our most private and vulnerable…
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“Password protected… or are we?” – 43 million passwords in Last.fm hacking scandal

The hack of the music streaming platform, Last.fm, reportedly happened in March 2012, but it has taken a few years to uncover its true extent.

Earlier this month, an investigation found that a staggering figure of 43,570,999 user accounts had fallen victim to the hacking; a huge number.

In terms of how this stacks up with other hacks, it’s certainly up there with the volumes of people affected.
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Hacked webcam live streams 8 year old girl’s bedroom online

A mother in Houston, Texas, was unaware that the private webcam in her two eight year old daughter’s room, that was intended to keep an eye on the girls, had been hacked.

Live footage of the two girls was being streamed online for anyone to view.

The live stream had been online for thousands to view since July. It was only when another mother came across the feed and created a Facebook group for Houston mothers with screen shots of the girl’s bedroom online in order to find the mother.
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Volkswagen vulnerable to key hacking

As if Volkswagen haven’t already been in hot water enough because of the emissions scandal, it has now been discovered that millions of Volkswagen vehicles are reportedly prone to theft by hacking.

This is because the keyless entry system can reportedly be hacked, with vehicles that have been sold since 1995 being at risk.
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Are fitness trackers leaking personal data?

Many people have fitness trackers. You can have them on your Smartphone, tablets, and smart watches.

These trackers can allow everyone to monitor their fitness levels whilst on the go. However, despite fitness trackers being useful, its been reported that they may contain security weaknesses which allow hackers access to data.

This somewhat takes the shine off these useful devices if users are vulnerable to data leaks!
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Employees of Google, Samsung and Apple suffer data breach

Employee accounts of Google, Samsung, and Apple along with other tech firms have apparently had their accounts hacked.

This information comes from the Khronos website. Supposedly the hackers hacked into a forum that was often used by the developers for things such as game development. Others that are allegedly victims of the hack include Toshiba, Sony Ericsson, IBM, EA, Intel, Panasonic and VMWare.

More companies may have had employee accounts stolen as well.
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Can computer monitors be hacked and used to snoop on you?

We are constantly being warned of different ways in which our data can be hacked. We have previously done posts on unsecured wireless keyboards and cameras, but now it appears there is another way hackers can gain access to our computers – through active screen snooping!

By exploiting unsecure monitors, hackers can manipulate screens and even spy on you.

Whilst we can agree that you should not always trust everything that you read online, we rarely question what we may see on our computer screen. But the information displayed on the screen may actually be false because it may have been manipulated.

In some cases, hackers will be extracting data without you even knowing it!
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Lawsuit filed against Banner Health after massive data breach

Although we deal with data leaks primarily over here in the UK, we report on the common ones in the U.S. as well as it serves to show just how serious and how often breaches, leaks, and hacks are happening.

It is an everyday problem.

In America, a lawsuit has been filed against healthcare system, Banner Health. The lawsuit against Banner Health is a class-action lawsuit that has been filed by a Glendale doctor, Dr. Howard Chen. The class-action is being brought because of a cyber-attack on Banner Health that resulted in 3.7 million patients, employees, cafeteria customers, and other people’s information being compromised.
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ID cards for health insurance company discloses data breach

Newkirk Products Inc, a company in America which provides ID cards for health insurance plans, has revealed that a data breach took place that allowed unauthorised access to a server that contained a wealth of member information.

The server that was hacked contained data which included names, addresses, and dates of birth for members. Banking or credit card details, medical information, and social security numbers, were reportedly not on the server, the company has said.

It is estimated about 3.3 million members of the insurance plan have been affected by the data breach, but there is no evidence that the data has been used inappropriately. As of yet…
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