Skype Glitch Allowed Android Authentication Bypass

A Skype vulnerability could have allowed hackers to bypass authentication methods and access personal data on an Android device – simply by answering a Skype call to that device. The glitch, which was disclosed by security researcher Florian Kunushevci last week, was patched earlier in December b...

Dual Data Leaks of Blur, Town of Salem Impact Millions

The new year has started off with the disclosure of two high-profile data breaches exposing the personal and password data of millions of people. Popular role-playing game Town of Salem saw the email addresses and passwords of more than 7.6 million players hacked; while a separate database issue...

We’re all Just Starting to Realize the Power of Personal Data

This year revealed consumers have a lot more to learn about what happens to their information online...

School hackers steal personal data of half a million students & staff

By Waqas A school district in the United States has suffered a cyber attack in which unknown hackers managed to steal a trove of personal data belonging to over 500,000 staff and students. The targeted school was San Diego Unified School District in California whose database was accessed by hacke...

NASA suffers data breach – Staff’s personal data stolen

By Waqas Another day, another data breach - This time, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA has suffered a data breach in which personal data of the agency's employees have been stolen. In a notification obtained by SpaceRef, the data breach was identified on October 23rd, 2018...

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...