The European Central Bank (ECB) confirmed that it has suffered a data breach at its Banks’ Integrated Reporting Dictionary (BIRD) website. In a short statement released on Thursday, the bank had stated that an unauthorised party had breached the security measures that were put in place to protect BIRD. Subsequently, the contact data of 481 […]
Privacy
Formjacking accounts for 71% of all web breaches
According to F5 Labs, formjacking has become an extremely popular method of data stealing. Formjacking is the process of injecting malicious code onto e-commerce websites with the purpose of stealing payment credentials. In F5 Labs latest Application Report 2019, 760 breaches had been analysed, and it was found that during the first half of 2019, […]
#privacy: UK’s biggest forensic services provider targeted by ransomware
A “highly-sophisticated” ransomware attack on Eurofins Scientific, has led to the suspension of work between the company and the British police. Eurofins Scientific, is an international group of laboratories that carry out DNA testing, firearms testing, toxicology analysis and computer forensic for police forces across the UK. In June, Eurofins Scientific had been targeted by […]
#privacy: Alison Pepper to speak at PrivSec New York
Alison Pepper will address audiences at PrivSec conference, taking place November 5th and 6th at Columbia University, New York City. Alison Pepper currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Government Relations at the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) in Washington, D.C. In that role she works with regulators, legislators, and cross-industry stakeholders on […]
#privacy: ICO to investigate facial recognition at King’s Cross
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is to launch an official investigation into the facial recognition processes in operation at King’s Cross in north London. When news of the technology’s use broke earlier in August, a spokesperson for the developer, Argent, said that monitoring was being carried out on the 67-acre site to “ensure public safety”, […]
#privacy: Web regulator in China says app operators must clamp down on data collection malpractice
The Internet regulator in China has instructed a high number of mobile app operators to improve the way they harvest and process private data. Collecting too much personal data has become a problem in the Asian nation, where over 800 million smart device users are turning to the internet to satisfy the full extent of […]
#privacy: Malware that can record computer screens discovered
A new malware has been discovered that is able to record the screen of an infected machine and identify a user who is viewing porn. Researchers at IT security company ESET, first observed the malware dubbed “Varenyky” in May 2019. A month later, researchers saw the first malicious document infecting a victim’s computer which had […]
#privacy: Personal data of Visa applicants accidentally leaked
The personal data of 317 people applying for Australian Visas were accidentally emailed to an incorrect address due to a “typo”. In an investigation by ABC, it was uncovered that a spreadsheet had been sent accidentally to an unknown individual’s email address. The breach happened in 2015 by a subcontractor of Bupa, Sonic HealthPlus (SHP). […]
#privacy: Public Transport Victoria in breach of privacy laws
In July 2019, Public Transport Victoria (PTV) released a dataset that exposed the travel history of more than 15 million myki cards. The dataset also leaked 1.8 billion travel records of myki public transport users between the period June 2015 and June 2018. The dataset contained records of the touch on and touch off data, […]
DSARS – what organisations can look forward to
Since the GDPR rules were introduced in May 2018, data subject access requests (DSARs) have been on the rise. The ICO reports that data protection complaints from the public have gone up: 41,000 since May 2018, compared with 21,000 for the preceding year. Of these, 38% related to DSARs compared with 39% the preceding year; […]