On September 18, 2015, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued its draft Framework for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), which is “intended to provide a methodology for understanding, designing and...more
Within days of Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shields’ (Excellus) announcement that its data had been accessed by a hacker through a “sophisticated” cyber-attack, two law firms teamed up to file a proposed class action suit last...more
9/25/2015
/ Blue Cross ,
Blue Shield ,
Breach of Contract ,
Class Action ,
Credit Monitoring ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Data Protection ,
Hackers ,
Healthcare ,
Negligence ,
Personally Identifiable Information
We End Violence, a third party vendor that provides online sexual assault prevention training to California State (Cal State) students notified Cal State that it experienced a vulnerability in its underlying code that exposed...more
9/18/2015
/ Cal State University ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Educational Institutions ,
Hackers ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Sexual Assault ,
Third-Party Service Provider
Late last week, Lyft and First National Bank (FNB) were notified by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that they had violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) when they required users to opt in to...more
9/18/2015
/ Banking Sector ,
Cell Phones ,
Compliance ,
Consent Agreements ,
FCC ,
Financial Institutions ,
First National ,
Lyft ,
Marketing ,
Online Banking ,
Opt-In ,
Right to Privacy ,
Sharing Economy ,
Smartphones ,
TCPA ,
Telecommunications ,
Telemarketing ,
Text Messages
I am asked every day how one can protect their information and privacy in this world of daily data breaches, so we are adding a weekly practical tip to assist our readers in managing their information....more
Last week, an Illinois judge dismissed with prejudice five of the six claims levied against Advocate Health Care in a consolidated case of ten cases filed against it following the data breach it experienced in July of 2013...more
Anonymous users of the almost 40 million users of the Ashley Madison website have filed suit against internet service providers (ISPs) GoDaddy and Amazon alleging that they have been damaged because the ISPs hosted the stolen...more
9/18/2015
/ Adultery ,
Ashley Madison ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Data Breach ,
Hackers ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
Marriage ,
Negligence ,
Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress ,
Online Platforms ,
Reasonable Expectation of Privacy ,
Spouses ,
Websites
Law enforcement authorities have announced the arrest of two individuals-one a Russian national and the other Moldovan, both of whom are alleged to have developed and implemented banking malware known as Citadel and Dridex....more
UCLA was absolved by a California judge last week in a suit filed by a patient of a UCLA affiliated doctor’s group, who alleged that a temporary worker in the doctor’s office used the doctor’s username and password to get...more
Last week, UCLA notified 1242 patients that their health information may have been compromised in July when a faculty member’s laptop was stolen. UCLA has notified the patients, the Office for Civil Rights and the California...more
The National Futures Association (NFA) recently approved new mandatory cybersecurity rules for members of the futures industry. Members of the NFA include exchange-traded futures, forex and over-the-counter swaps industries....more
Yesterday, Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield, located in Rochester, NY, announced that it will notify up to 10 million members that it was the victim of a cyber-attack dating back to December of 2013 that exposed their members’...more
9/11/2015
/ Anthem Blue Cross ,
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) ,
Blue Cross ,
Blue Shield ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Protection ,
Hackers ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare ,
Insurance Industry ,
Personally Identifiable Information
The federal government has arrested 32 members of the Insane Crip gang and charged them with 283 counts of criminal conspiracy, 299 counts of identity theft, 226 counts of grand theft and 58 counts of attempted theft through...more
In conjunction with the new school year, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance, in the form of a “Dear Colleague” letter, to higher education institutions to remind them of FERPA’s requirements as they relate to...more
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Defense Department announced this week that a Portland, OR based vendor has been selected to assist with breach notification and credit assistance for the almost 22 million...more
9/8/2015
/ Breach Notification Rule ,
Credit Monitoring ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cyber Threats ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Hackers ,
Identity Protection Services ,
Identity Theft ,
OPM ,
Personally Identifiable Information
MAC Cosmetics, Inc. (MAC) has settled a proposed class action suit filed in Massachusetts federal court, which alleged that it illegally obtained customers’ zip codes at the point of sale. MAC has agreed to set up a fund...more
Using the Maryland Consumer Protection Act, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh has announced that eye care retailer Visionworks, Inc. has agreed to pay the state of Maryland $100,000 and enhance its security measures...more
9/4/2015
/ Cyber Threats ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Encryption ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC v Wyndham ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices ,
Wyndham
A new survey released by Raytheon and websense, called “Study-Why Executives Lack Security Posture Confidence While Knowing that the Metrics They Use to Gauge it are Ineffective” “reveals that confidence in [executives’]...more
California based Machinima, an online entertainment network that promoted Xbox One, has settled an investigation with the FTC surrounding its advertising practices. The FTC alleged that Machinima paid “influencers” to post...more
Yesterday, the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence issued its NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide, Draft Special Publication 1800-2 “Identity and Access Management for Electric Utilities.”
The Guide is a result of...more
We previously reported that hackers The Impact Team had posted legitimate detailed information about 36 million adultery website Ashley Madison users. In the wake of the shocking posting of the data last week, two class...more
8/31/2015
/ Adultery ,
Ashley Madison ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Email ,
False Advertising ,
Hackers ,
Internet ,
Marriage ,
Military Service Members ,
Online Platforms ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Spouses ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
The U.K. Information Commissioner issued an order to Google this week requiring it to remove nine search results of an individual’s minor criminal offense that was committed close to ten years ago. This is reported to be the...more
In a strongly worded opinion, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday slammed Wyndham Worldwide Corporation’s arguments that the FTC did not have jurisdiction to enforce the security practices of businesses following a...more
8/31/2015
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC v Wyndham ,
Hackers ,
Jurisdiction ,
Privacy Policy ,
Section 5 ,
Wyndham
In response to the massive OPM data breach, the government has been searching for a vendor to provide identity protection services for the almost 22 million individuals affected. Bids were due last week, and the chosen vendor...more
Following the IRS’ admission that its data breach was actually larger than it originally reported and caused fraudulent tax returns to be filed affecting over 330,000 taxpayers, the IRS was sued this week in a proposed class...more
8/28/2015
/ Class Action ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Data Breach ,
Hackers ,
Inspector General ,
IRS ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Tax Fraud ,
Tax Returns