Computer Security
A Cyberattack Illuminates the Shaky State of Student Privacy
The software that many school districts use to track students’ progress can record extremely confidential information on children: “Intellectual disability.” “Emotional Disturbance.” “Homeless.” “Disruptive.” “Defiance.” “Perpetrator.” “Excessive Talking.” “Should attend tutoring.” Now these systems are coming under heightened scrutiny after a recent cyberattack on Illuminate Education, a leading provider of student-tracking software, which affected the […]
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In a Post-Roe World, the Future of Digital Privacy Looks Even Grimmer
Some location data analytics companies, including Foursquare, recently announced that they were restricting the use, sharing and sale of data on consumers’ visits to sensitive locations like reproductive health clinics. But law enforcement agencies with warrants may still obtain such location records. The phone carriers that operate the backbone of the wireless internet for smartphones […]
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Hacker Offers to Sell Chinese Police Database in Potential Breach
In what may be one of the largest known breaches of Chinese personal data, a hacker has offered to sell a Shanghai police database that could contain information on perhaps one billion Chinese citizens. The unidentified hacker, who goes by the name ChinaDan, posted in an online forum last week that the database for sale […]
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TikTok tells Republican senators how it plans to keep American data away from China.
TikTok gave U.S. lawmakers more details in a letter dated Thursday about how it plans to keep data about its American users separate from ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, aiming to combat concerns that the video app poses a national security risk. In a letter to nine Republican senators, Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s chief executive, […]
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Ex-Amazon Worker Convicted in Capital One Hacking
A former Amazon engineer who was accused of stealing customers’ personal information from Capital One in one of the largest breaches in the United States was found guilty of wire fraud and hacking charges on Friday. A Seattle jury found that Paige Thompson, 36, had violated an anti-hacking law known as the Computer Fraud and […]
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Accused Capital One Hacker Stands Trial for Fraud and Identity Theft
Just as Amazon stores millions of physical goods in a dizzying array of warehouses, Amazon Web Services hosts vast amounts of data for other companies that rent space on its servers. Among its customers was Capital One. In early 2019, several years after she stopped working for Amazon Web Services, Ms. Thompson searched for its […]
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‘Quantum Internet’ Inches Closer With Advance in Data Teleportation
From Santa Barbara, Calif., to Hefei, China, scientists are developing a new kind of computer that will make today’s machines look like toys. Harnessing the mysterious powers of quantum mechanics, the technology will perform tasks in minutes that even supercomputers could not complete in thousands of years. In the fall of 2019, Google unveiled an […]
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Your Bosses Could Have a File on You, and They May Misinterpret It
For decades, much of the federal government’s security-clearance-granting process has relied on techniques that emerged in the mid-twentieth century. “It’s very manual,” said Evan Lesser, president of ClearanceJobs, a website posting, jobs, news and advice for positions that involve security clearances. “Driving around in cars to meet people. It’s very antiquated and takes up a […]
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Block Says Cash App Breach Affected 8 Million Users
Sensitive information for more than eight million users of Cash App Investing — a stock trading app run by Block, the owner of the Square payments system — was exposed when a former employee downloaded corporate reports after leaving the company. Block revealed the data exposure in a regulatory filing on Monday, and said it […]
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