Data Breaches
Telco fined €9 million for hiding cyberattack impact to customers
The Greek data protection authority has imposed fines of 5,850,000 EUR ($6.55 million) to COSMOTE and 3,250,000 EUR ($3.65 million) to OTE, for leaking sensitive customer communication due to a cyberattack. As the agency says in an announcement, COSMOTE infringed at least eight articles of the GDPR, including violating its duty to…
Read More »10 crisis communications tips for privacy breaches
Privacy breaches are happening all the time and they can have dire consequences. When (not if) you experience a breach, the stakeholder trust that’s been built in your organization is on the line. How you handle the breach can affect how you maintain and, if necessary, rebuild that trust. How you communicate when…
Read More »FTC warns companies to secure consumer data from Log4J attacks
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned today that it will go after any US company that fails to protect its customers’ data against ongoing Log4J attacks. “The FTC intends to use its full legal authority to pursue companies that fail to take reasonable steps to protect consumer data…
Read More »Five common misperceptions about business cyberattacks
Most decision makers in IT management are having to spin so many plates, all at the same time, that there’s always a danger one of them will eventually fall to the floor and smash. The problem is, just because you’ve attended to a cyber security issue, or decided that it’s…
Read More »Black Hat: GDPR privacy law exploited to reveal personal data
About one in four companies revealed personal information to a woman’s partner, who had made a bogus demand for the data by citing an EU privacy law. The security expert contacted dozens of UK and US-based firms to test how they would handle a “right of access” request made in…
Read More »Hackers are exploiting a server vulnerability with a severity of 9.8 out of 10
In a development security pros feared, attackers are actively targeting yet another set of critical server vulnerabilities that leave corporations and governments open to serious network intrusions. The vulnerability this time is in BIG-IP, a line of server appliances sold by Seattle-based F5 Networks. Customers use BIG-IP servers to manage…
Read More »The Great $50M African IP Address Heist
A top executive at the nonprofit entity responsible for doling out chunks of Internet addresses to businesses and other organizations in Africa has resigned his post following accusations that he secretly operated several companies which sold tens of millions of dollars worth of the increasingly scarce resource to online marketers.…
Read More »Investigation into Desjardins’ compliance with PIPEDA following a breach of personal information between 2017 and 2019
December 14, 2020 Overview On May 27, 2019, the Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec (“Desjardins”) notified the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (“our Office” or the “OPC”) of a breach of security safeguards that ultimately affected close to 9.7 million individuals in Canada and abroad. The compromised personal information…
Read More »Combination of weaknesses led to massive data breach at Desjardins
Original Post GATINEAU, QC, December 14, 2020 – A data breach at Desjardins – the largest ever in the Canadian financial services sector – was caused by a series of gaps in administrative and technological safeguards, according to an investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC). The OPC today…
Read More »Canada Revenue Agency suspends online services after cyberattacks
The Canada Revenue Agency has temporarily suspended its online services after two cyberattacks in which hackers used thousands of stolen usernames and passwords to fraudulently obtain government services and compromise Canadians’ personal information. A total of 5,500 CRA accounts were targeted in what the federal government described as two “credential…
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