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Several mainstream apps pay $5.3 million settlement for illegally accessing iOS users’ contacts list

Several popular applications were accused of accessing iPhone user contact address books without their knowledge or consent between 2009 and 2012.

Twitter, Instagram, Yelp and Foursquare are among the companies whose apps were accused of the data breach, and many complaints were made that the practice was a breach of personal privacy. With the number of people affected, the matter was brought to the attention of regulators who found that the social network platform Path were liable for breaches, and a huge settlement has been made.
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University of East Anglia under fire for leaking sensitive and confidential data about students

The University of East Anglia has been hit with anger and disappointment from students and the general public after it was revealed that a member of staff made a horrific error in sending out a spreadsheet listing named students’ extenuating circumstances.

The spreadsheet identified the 40 students by name and student ID number and had their private and confidential information with their names. The list of circumstances included things like family illness and bereavements; mental health problems including depression; and sexual assault cases.

We have already been contacted for advice and we’re investigating the issues.
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Yahoo’s CISO responds to data breach questions

Sometimes the Chief Information Security Officer’s (CISO) role is hidden in the shadows, and they may generally be unheard of. However, Yahoo’s CISO, Bob Lord, has been in the limelight in recent years after two massive data breaches – arguably the biggest ones in recent history – that affected approximately a billion and a half of Yahoo’s users.

Mr Lord made jokes during an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt New York saying that he “may have broken a record” for the amount of emails sent. The email that circulated was to inform users of the breach.

Not sure the rest of us are finding this funny…
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“Target” to pay $18.5 million settlement for 2013 data breach

Target has agreed to pay out a whopping $18.5 million to U.S customers after a nationwide data breach.

Millions of customers had their personal information compromised back in 2013.

The data breach affected customers’ contact, account, and billing information. It’s believed that a total of 60 million customers were affected.
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DocuSign data breach puts users at risk

DocuSign – the company that lets users ‘sign’ documents digitally – has admitted they have been hacked.

During the data breach, hackers managed to take user email addresses, and cyber-criminals haven’t wasted any time as multiple users have already reportedly fallen victim to phishing emails.

The lack of delay means that DocuSign didn’t even have time to warn users that their information was compromised and to look out for “malicious third party” activity. Reportedly, users were enticed to click on a harmless looking Microsoft Word document, but the document contained certain malware to steal passwords and banking information.
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Ffrees customer personal information has been exposed in a data breach

Ffrees is an online banking service that lets customers transfer money into their Ffrees account for discounted shopping, where users may benefit from discounts on purchases in various shops

Recently, they have come under fire for data protection and compliance issues.

Ffrees have previously come under scrutiny for their terms and conditions, but now it seems the company has failed to secure their customers’ personal information following a cyber security incident.
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Most UK businesses expect to be a data breach victim this year

According to IT Pro Portal, the “majority of UK businesses expect a data breach this year”.

For those who follow this blog, this probably isn’t news at all…

In the past few years, data breaches are becoming so common that they’re almost a norm. Businesses in the UK are being targeted more and more; either directly or with certain malware worms that seek out vulnerable servers.
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Survey finds that if you make over around £60,000 annually or graduate from University, you’re more likely to become a target of credit/debit card fraud.

Cyber-criminals are targeting more “affluent” individuals to obtain more money, studies have found.

Like a burglar deciding between a modest house and a luxurious one, they’re apparently choosing the ones that are likely to have more valuables. With the continual rise of malware, criminals are becoming more and more sophisticated and are taking on higher security risks for higher stakes.
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Yahoo exposed for not cooperating with data breach investigations

Multinational technology company ‘Yahoo’ hasn’t seen the end to the ongoing criticisms since the first cyber-attack in 2013.

On 11^th May 2017, Germany’s federal cyber agency The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) noted Yahoo was being uncooperative in their investigation into a series of cyber-hacks that compromised approximately 1 billion accounts between 2013 and 2016.

According to the BSI, an additional 32 million Yahoo users were affected by cyber-breaches in 2015 and 2016, but have yet to hear of any cyber-breaches affecting Yahoo users in 2017.

When will it end?
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Manchester Police fined for losing videos of violent and sexual crime victims

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has concluded their investigations into the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) after video footage of crime victims were lost in the mail.

The video footage included interviews with vulnerable victims speaking about crimes of a violent and/or sexual nature. The package containing 3 DVDs were sent by recorded delivery to the Serious Crime Analysis Section (SCAS), but never arrived.

The footage was not encrypted.
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