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Identity Theft Labs

Data Breaches

Ok, we don’t write about data breaches too much anymore…. quite frankly, we couldn’t keep up if we wanted to….. not when there are a couple hundred each year. Occasionally we talk about a large one or one that received media attention here. For a chronology of data breaches please see DataLossDB.

Please see our identity theft protection reviews to learn about the companies that can help protect you from identity theft even if your information was exposed in a data breach.

Retailers and Banks Have Lost Consumer Trust

Consumers and citizens in general have lost faith in the current online trust models of major retailers and banks. The recent security breaches at K-Mart, Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase, among others have shown that the current system is broken. Hackers only needed to get lucky once in order to affect the lives of millions.

So what now? Hardware manufacturers, cloud service providers, and security vendors need to put their heads together to fix any vulnerability that would allow these breaches to happen. Sharing information among each other can only prevent threats from successfully accessing private information. Another solution could be to give consumers one-time use credit card numbers that alter after each transaction or give consumers self-imposed spending limits to reduce fraudulent charges. These small things can help stop crime before it starts.

For a full article on this issue, click here:: Financial Breaches Show ‘Trust Model’ is Broken
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Cyberattacks Rank as Banking Industry’s Largest Concern

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation published a report showing that financial services hold cybersecurity as their biggest worry even though they are one of the most security-savvy industries in the world. For the third quarter of 2014, 84% of financial firms ranked cyberrisk as their number one concern. This comes off the massive breach that financial giant JP Morgan Chase had earlier this month. If a top dog like that gets exposed, then any sized financial group is open for attack.

For a full article on this story, read more here:: Financial Service Ranks Cyberattacks Top Industry Worry
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“Operation Pawn Storm” Checks U.S. Military

A cyber espionage campaign dubbed “Operation Pawn Storm” has been reported by Trend Micro to have been attacking and remaining inside U.S. military targets since 2007. Based on evidence found, it appears that the attackers are going against the US, NATO allies, and Russian dissidents. Most of the attacks are through emails containing malicious MS Office files.

For a full article on this story, click here:: US Military Officials, Defense Firms Targeted in ‘Operation Pawn Storm’
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How a Binder Flaw Could Cripple Android’s Security

“Subverting this component allows an attack to see and control almost all important data being transferred within the system.” That quote was taken from Checkpoint researchers Nitay Artenstein and Idan Revivo in their presentation regarding the Android’s vulnerability in their OS’s inter-process communication tool known as Binder. Find out the weakness within Binder and what it means for your Android phone’s security here.

Smart Electricity Meters Proved Stupid By Hackers

Due to lack of basic security controls, millions of network-connect electricity meters a.k.a. “smart meters” in Spain are susceptible to cyberattacks. Recently, a two security researchers discovered a weak encryption on the smart meters the government relies on in order to improve energy efficiency across the nation. Read more about this story and the findings the researchers will present to Black Hat Europe conference here.