briefs
Backdoor worm owns Tomcat boxes
Logs in with weak credentials.
Nov 22 2013 9:58AM
Security
News briefs
More military woes
The personal information of about 28,000 U.S. Navy sailors and their family members was posted on a public website, a month after the personal data of 26.5 million veterans and active duty military personnel was compromised.
Chief of Navy Personnel J.C. Harvey Jr. was told that an unnamed website hosted five data spreadsheets containing personal information on several Navy members and dependents.
All of the affected personnel were stationed in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to the Navy's website.
Aug 7 2006 9:48PM
Security
News briefs
A laptop that had stored on it the personal information of more than 26.5 million veterans was reportedly stolen in May from the home of an employee of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The event was not made public until nearly three weeks later.
The massive data breach resulted in a shakeup at the department, including the resignation of a deputy assistant secretary and a class action lawsuit.
The stolen data may also have included information on 1.1 million active-duty service members, 430,000 National Guardsmen and 645,000 members of the Reserves.
Jul 7 2006 9:36PM
Security
News briefs
Breach in Texas
The University of Texas suffered its second major data breach in three years when more than 197,000 personal records were exposed at the McCombs School of Business.
The breach compromised the Social Security numbers and other biographical information of alumni, faculty, staff and students of the business school.
Not much is known about the source of the breach, though UT officials said they are working on an investigation. In the meantime, the university set up a website and toll-free numbers to direct those potentially affected to protect their identities.
Jun 5 2006 10:41PM
Security
News briefs
The uproar over foreign control over American interests was blamed for the break-up of one nearly successful IT security merger.
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., which is based in Israel, and Maryland-based Sourcefire broke off a $225 million merger that came under intense scrutiny by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
“Basically we agreed to withdraw applications based on a couple of things,” said Michelle Perry, chief marketing officer for Sourcefire. “First the complexities of the overall CFIUS process, the lengthy ongoing delays and the current climate for international acquisitions.
May 10 2006 8:09PM
Security
News briefs
Security and privacy experts voiced their concerns over whether or not Google’s latest desktop feature is a threat because of a controversial feature that allows users to run remote searches across multiple computers.
The internet search giant contended that the “search across computers” feature of Google Desktop 3 Beta, “helps users easily access information from all their computers so they don’t need to remember where all of their documents are organized or filed.”
However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said that the feature would make personal data more susceptible to government subpoenas and hackers.
Apr 14 2006 8:14PM
Security
News briefs
ChoicePoint has agreed to pay $10 million in fines, the largest civil penalty ever imposed by the Federal Trade Commission, and $5 million in consumer compensation, to settle charges that the data broker’s record-handling procedures violated consumers’ privacy rights.
“The message to ChoicePoint and others should be clear: Consumers’ private data must be protected from thieves,” said Deborah Platt Majoras, chairwoman of the FTC.
The company admitted last year that a data breach compromised the personal information of at least 163,000 customers, with 800 becoming identity theft victims, the FTC said.
Mar 7 2006 7:45PM
Security
News Briefs
Breach law signed in N.Y.
Jan 11 2006 9:14PM
Security
News Briefs
Sony-BMG Entertainment has been under fire from a blogger-fueled media storm after the discovery of spyware-like technology in its CDs.
Windows security expert Mark Russinovich first revealed the existence of a rootkit device on 20 of Sony’s musical selections in late October, and within days trojan writers were taking advantage of the cloaking technology to gain access to PCs.
A handful of internet weblogs called for boycotts of Sony products less than a month before the holiday shopping season was about to begin, and on Nov. 13 Sony released a statement saying it would withdraw the application from its CD-Roms.
Business PC users were concerned the cloaking technology could lead to the compromise of sensitive corporate information, voicing their concerns in a November Sophos poll that showed 98 percent of enterprise users felt the digital rights management technology was a threat.
Dec 15 2005 5:14PM
Security
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Jan 1 2000 12:00AM
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