Optus and Medibank Data Breach Cases Allege Cyber Security Failures

2022 was a big year for cyber security breaches in Australia. Both telecommunications provider Optus and private health insurer Medibank suffered large-scale data breaches affecting tens of millions of Australians, leading to heightened regulatory and business focus on cyber security Read More …

UK: Basic IT security failings left electoral register vulnerable

Basic IT security failings allowed Chinese state-linked hackers to access the election watchdog’s register containing the details of 40 million voters. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said the Electoral Commission had failed to keep its servers updated, allowing hackers to Read More …

US senators ask FTC to investigate car makers’ privacy practices

An ongoing US Senate investigation indicated that connected car makers violate consumer privacy by sharing and selling drivers’ data, including their location, on a vast scale, and that the same car makers often obtain consumer consent through deception. Based on Read More …

US border agents must get warrant before cell phone searches, federal court rules

A federal district court in New York has ruled that U.S. border agents must obtain a warrant before searching the electronic devices of Americans and international travelers crossing the U.S. border. The ruling on July 24 is the latest court Read More …

Intruders at HealthEquity rifled through storage, stole 4.3M people’s data

HealthEquity, a US fintech firm for the healthcare sector, admits that a “data security event” it discovered at the end of June hit the data of a substantial 4.3 million individuals. Stolen details include addresses, telephone numbers and payment data.… Read More …

Elon Musk’s X accused of AI data grab in ‘blatant breach of law’

Privacy organisation Open Rights Group has branded a move by social network X (formerly Twitter) to use user data to train its Grok AI as a “blatant breach of GDPR”. The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is an EU law Read More …

TracFone will pay $16 million to settle FCC data breach investigation

Following three separate data breaches between 2021 and 2023 which exposed the proprietary information (PI) of TracFone Wireless customers, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that the Verizon-owned company has agreed to pay a $16 million civil penalty to settle Read More …