Data scraping treasure trove found in the wild

We bring word of yet more data exposure, in the form of “nonsensitive” data scraping to the tune of 66m records across 3 large databases. The information was apparently scraped from various sources and left to gather dust, for anyone lucky enough to stumble upon it. What is data scraping? The...

Another MongoDB database exposes personal data of 66M users

By Waqas Another day, another data breach - This time, the IT security researcher at HackenProof have discovered a massive trove of personal data of over 66 million users exposed online due to an unprotected MongoDB database. In October and November 2018, HackenProof's security researcher Bob...

Your Personal Data is Already Stolen

In an excellent blog post, Brian Krebs makes clear something I have been saying for a while: Likewise for individuals, it pays to accept two unfortunate and harsh realities: Reality 1: Bad guys already have access to personal data points that you may believe should be secret but which nevertheles...

Quora hacked: Personal data of 100 million users stolen

By Waqas Quora hacked - Change your password now. Another day, another data breach - This time Quora, a question-and-answer website, has suffered a massive data breach in which personal data of 100 million registered users has been stolen, the company said on Tuesday, December 4th. In a blog post...

What the Marriott Breach Says About Security

We don't yet know the root causes that forced Marriott this week to disclose a four-year-long breach involving the personal and financial information of 500 million guests of its Starwood hotel properties. But anytime we see such a colossal intrusion go undetected for so long, the ultimate cause ...

What DNA testing kit companies are really doing with your data

Sarah hovered over the mailbox, envelope in hand. She knew as soon as she mailed off her DNA sample, there’d be no turning back. She ran through the information she looked up on 23andMe’s website one more time: the privacy policy, the research parameters, the option to learn about potential healt...

Two TalkTalk hackers jailed for 2015 data breach that cost it £77 million

Two hackers have been sent to prison for their roles in hacking TalkTalk, one of the biggest UK-based telecommunications company, in 2015 and stealing personal information, banking, and credit card details belonging to more than 156,000 customers. Matthew Hanley, 23, and Connor Allsopp, 21, both...

Ford Eyes Using Personal Data to Boost Profits

UPDATE Ford Motor Company is known for making cars and trucks; but the future for the iconic automaker might look a little more like Facebook than an assembly line. As it struggles with hemorrhaging earnings in markets outside of North America, industry-watchers are speculating that Ford is looki...

Bug Bounty Hunter Ran ISP Doxing Service

A Connecticut man who's earned bug bounty rewards and public recognition from top telecom companies for finding and reporting security holes in their Web sites secretly operated a service that leveraged these same flaws to sell their customers' personal data, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. In May...

4 things you didn’t know a VPN could do

By Sabrina Bucknole Until recently, many people thought of VPNs as a tool used by tech-savvy kids to anonymously download music and films. But, as concern about the use and security of personal data online continues to rise, it is no surprise that the number of people using a Virtual Private...

HSBC suffers data breach after hackers access customers’ personal data

By Uzair Amir The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation HSBC has suffered a data breach in which unknown hackers have accessed personal and financial data of its customers. The data breach, according to the notification from HSBC, took between October 4, 2018, and October 14, 2018. Upon...

Spam and phishing in Q3 2018

Quarterly highlights Personal data in spam We have often said that personal data is candy on a stick to fraudsters and must be kept safe that is, not given out on dubious websites. It can be used to gain access to accounts and in targeted attacks and ransomware campaigns. In Q3, we registered a...

British Airways Data Breach Takes Off Again with 185K More Victims

British Airways said that the data breach it first reported in September is larger than previously thought. It has added an additional 185,000 victims to the official tally. The airline said that hackers may have stolen personal data connected to an additional 77,000 payment cards, including name...

Cathay Pacific hit by massive data breach; 10 million passengers affected

By Waqas Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways Limited has suffered a massive data breach in which personal data of 9.4 million customers has been stolen by unknown hackers. Cathay Pacific states that the stolen data includes passenger name, date of birth, nationality, email, phone number, frequent...

Adult Website Hack Exposes 1.2M ‘Wife Lover’ Fans

The database underlying an erotica site known as Wife Lovers has been hacked, making off with user information protected only by a simple-to-crack, outdated hashing technique known as the DEScrypt algorithm. Over the weekend, it came to light that Wife Lovers and seven sister sites, all similarly...

Personal data of 75,000 individuals exposed after HealthCare.gov system hack

By Waqas Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMS experienced a data breach leading to exposure of highly sensitive personal data of nearly 75,000 people. The CMS is a government system linked with healthCare.gov which assists insurance agents and brokers in helping people register for its...

30 Million Facebook Accounts Were Hacked: Check If You're One of Them

Late last month Facebook announced its worst-ever security breach that allowed an unknown group of hackers to steal secret access tokens for millions of accounts by taking advantage of a flaw in the 'View As' feature. At the time of the initial disclosure, Facebook estimated that the number of...

It’s Not Daddy Calling

How I found vulnerabilities that could put the safety of children in jeopardy How it started A friend recently showed me a tracker watch that he’d purchased for his son. It offered useful functionality such as two-way calling, and the accompanying app allowed him to track the location of his son...

ProConf Information Disclosure Vulnerability

ProConf is a conference management system. An information disclosure vulnerability exists in ProConf versions prior to 6.1. An attacker can exploit the vulnerability by changing the value of the Paper ID to view or gain access to submitted reports titles and abstracts and authors' personal...

T-Mobile data breach: Personal data of 2 million users stolen

By Waqas The stolen data also includes "encrypted" passwords. Another day, another T-Mobile data breach. This time, the telecommunication giant T-Mobile has announced that it has suffered a data breach in which unknown hackers have stolen personal data of 2 million customers. According to the...