Independent – Page 55 – Computer Security Articles

The ACLU and eight federal public defenders are asking the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to exclude mobile device location data obtained from Google via a so-called geofence warrant that helped law enforcement catch a bank robbery suspect.

The first geofence civil rights case to reach a federal court of appeals raises serious Fourth Amendment concerns against unreasonable search and seizure related to the location and personal information of mobile device users.

Geofence warrants have primarily been issued for Google to hand over data about every cell phone or other mobile device within a specific geographical region and timeframe. The problem: location data on every person carrying a mobile device in that area is scooped up in a wide net and their data is then handed over en masse to law enforcement.

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ComputerWorld Independent

February 1, 2023 admin

US agency calls Apple, Google App Stores 'harmful'

Apple appears to have been given yet another set of reasons to expand its legal team as the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) calls for antitrust action to force Apple and Google to make big changes to their mobile app store business models.

What’s the problem?

NTIA is the principal advisor on telecommunications and Internet policy to the Biden administration. It argues that the way things are run at present may be “harmful,” arguing that Google’s and Apple’s “gatekeeper” positions may harm consumers by raising prices and reducing innovation.

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ComputerWorld Independent

January 26, 2023 admin

Morgan Stanley fines some employees $1M for WhatsApp, iMessage use

Investment banking firm Morgan Stanley has punished some of its employees with fines that topped more than $1 million for breaching compliance rules by using WhatsApp and iMessage for business communications.

The fines were levied by docking previous bonuses or future pay, according to a report in the Financial Times.

While the fines might seem steep, Morgan Stanley itself has had to pay millions of dollars in fines for previous SEC violations related to the use of consumer messaging apps for business purposes.

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Independent Krebs

January 25, 2023 admin

Experian Glitch Exposing Credit Files Lasted 47 Days

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2023 19:58:46 +0000

On Dec. 23, 2022, KrebsOnSecurity alerted big-three consumer credit reporting bureau Experian that identity thieves had worked out how to bypass its security and access any consumer’s full credit report — armed with nothing more than a person’s name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number. Experian fixed the glitch, but remained silent about the incident for a month. This week, however, Experian acknowledged that the security failure persisted for nearly seven weeks, between Nov. 9, 2022 and Dec. 26, 2022.

Independent Krebs

January 24, 2023 admin

Administrator of RSOCKS Proxy Botnet Pleads Guilty

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2023 19:00:32 +0000

Denis Emelyantsev, a 36-year-old Russian man accused of running a massive botnet called RSOCKS that stitched malware into millions of devices worldwide, pleaded guilty to two counts of computer crime violations in a California courtroom this week. The plea comes just months after Emelyantsev was extradited from Bulgaria, where he told investigators, “America is looking for me because I have enormous information and they need it.”

ComputerWorld Independent

January 24, 2023 admin

Apple marks Data Privacy Week with in-store privacy training, more

Apple this year is marking Data Privacy Week by working to educate iPhone users about the privacy protection tools they already have in hand, a move that has implications across any business that wants to maintain privacy.

Data protection is the bedrock of business

Data Privacy Week grew out of the Jan. 28, 2007 first convention on data protection. Today, it’s a global event that aims to raise awareness around privacy and data protection.

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ComputerWorld Independent

January 24, 2023 admin

How Microsoft is helping Ukraine’s cyberwar against Russia

One of the big surprises in Russia’s war against Ukraine has been how well Ukraine has fended off Russian cyberattacks. Ad hoc groups of white-hat hackers have helped, as have a number of nations and the US government.

Less well known is that tech companies, including Microsoft, are part of the effort. That aid ranges from giving advice to identifying attacks, offering fixes for them, and providing Ukraine with free tech and security services.

Microsoft isn’t just trying to help defend a country under siege from an aggressive, more-powerful neighbor. Russian cyberattacks against Ukraine can also get loose in the wild and do damage to enterprises and organizations that rely on Microsoft technology. (Russia could also deliberately target private companies with those attacks.)

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Independent Krebs

January 19, 2023 admin

New T-Mobile Breach Affects 37 Million Accounts

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2023 04:09:22 +0000

T-Mobile today disclosed a data breach affecting tens of millions of customer accounts, its second major data exposure in as many years. In a filing with federal regulators, T-Mobile said an investigation determined that someone abused its systems to harvest subscriber data tied to approximately 37 million current customer accounts.