privacy and security - Page 13

A group of Chinese hackers working on behalf of the Chinese government have been charged by U.S. authorities after allegedly targeting a number of American software companies including the popular system management tool CCleaner and multiple online games.

A bug was recently discovered in Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s official campaign app that allowed anyone to access sensitive voter information on millions of Americans. The privacy breach reportedly affects 191 million Americans.

A recent report from the Washington Post claims that a Chinese data firm has been collecting the “digital crumbs” of data of prominent Americans and military members for some time. The company gathered data on 2 million people including 50,000 Americans with the “stated purpose of providing intelligence to Chinese military, government and commercial clients.”

Oracle has won the bidding to take over the U.S. operations of the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, beating out Microsoft in a deal to allow the platform to continue operating in the United States. According to some sources familiar with the deal, it is closer to a “partnership” than an outright acquisition.

TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is reportedly entering negotiations with the United States government to discuss possible arrangements that would allow the video-sharing app to avoid a full sale of it’s U.S. operations.

Despite many troubling issues being raised around the country’s privacy laws, China has taken the initiative to release a “global standard for data security initiative” that it hopes will be adopted worldwide.

Students have figured out how to exploit testing software that uses AI technology to grade written answers. Several students explained to reporters this week that the software gives perfect scores on essay questions after students simply entered a list of relevant keywords instead of a standard test answer.

In a recent article, Wired magazine outlines how an ongoing investigation has revealed that Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s team successfully infiltrate Twitter’s platform to shut down anonymous critics within Saudi Arabia.

E-commerce giant Amazon has announced the launch of Amazon Halo, a health and wellness tracker that the company claims can track its users’ emotions by listening to the tone of their voice.

The State Arizona sued Google in May alleging that the company deceived users about its privacy settings and collection of personal data. A newly released document reveals that Google’s own engineers believe that the company “confuses users” and even some employees about privacy on the company’s platforms.

Federal prosecutors have reportedly charged former Uber Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan with covering up a massive 2016 data breach by paying hackers $100,000. The personal data of 57 million Uber passengers and drivers was stolen in the breach.

Video-conferencing app Zoom, notorious for its poor security, ties to Communist China, and “Zoom bombing,” is expanding its reach to a number of smart home devices from Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

Google frequently passes the personal data of “far-right” users to American counterterrorism authorities, according to leaked documents reported in the Guardian. 

A recent report from Wired states that independent researchers recently discovered a bug in Amazon’s Alexa devices that may have exposed users’ voice history to hackers. The company claims it has fixed the bug.

The Florida Board of Bar Examiners announced on Sunday that it has canceled an online administration of the Florida bar exam that was scheduled to take place this week. The cancellation came just days after dozens of exam-takers reported software failures and unauthorized attempts to access their online banking accounts.

The Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram reportedly kept users’ deleted photos and messages for over a year according to an investigation by a security researcher.

In a recent article in the New York Times, the CEO of DuckDuckGo explains that tech giants such as Facebook and Google know how to sell ads without damaging users’ privacy — they just choose not to do so.

A  lawsuit filed against Facebook in California this week claims that the company’s Instagram platform is unlawfully harvesting biometric data from its users. The lawsuit claims that Instagram is intentionally stealing facial recognition data from more than 100 million users without their consent.

Wired Magazine recently published an article giving insight into how Facebook and other social media websites manipulate users’ privacy choices to influence them into giving away more of their data.

A recent report from the Wall Street Journal alleges that the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok circumvented a privacy safeguard in Google’s Android operating system to collect user data.

A recent report claims that former employees of the online therapy app Talkspace allege that the company data-mined patient’s private conversations with therapists and used burner phones to leave fake reviews to boost the app’s reputation.

As anti-police activists around the country demand the doxing of law enforcement, one group is stepping up to answer the call. Malicious hackers have targeted more than twenty police departments and law enforcement organizations across the country in the past two months, releasing identifying information that could jeopardize the safety of tens of thousands of officers, Breitbart News has learned.

Millions of Android phones are at risk due to an “Achilles” flaw in Qualcomm chips, which involves vulnerable code on almost half of all Android smartphones.

Twitter disclosed this week that a new security vulnerability could have exposed the direct messages of those who access the platform on Google Android devices.

Harvard University has begun testing a contact tracing system that is designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus on campus this fall. Now, some experts are concerned that Harvard’s version of the tracking software will expose users to security breaches.

A new class-action lawsuit alleges that the popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok funnels personal details of children to communist China.

Google’s new real-time captions feature, Live Caption, will soon be able to eavesdrop on voice and video calls to transcribe them as you speak. The feature is troubling in light of Google’s shaky history on privacy. In 2019, user audio recorded by Google Assistant was leaked to the media, who revealed that contractors around the world regularly listened to recordings of Google users without their knowledge.

Social media network Twitter disclosed on Monday that after receiving a draft complaint from the FTC, it expects to be fined as much as $250 million for collecting personal information from users for security reasons and then using the data for targeted advertising purposes.

The Michigan state bar exam, which was offered online this year due to concerns about the ongoing pandemic, crashed due to a “sophisticated” cyberattack. Some exam-takers now want the software vendor to prove that the hackers were not able to access private user data.

Facebook’s photo-sharing social media service Instagram has promised to fix what it claims is a bug in its app after Apple’s iOS 14 revealed that the app regularly accesses iPhone users’ cameras.

U.S. investors are reportedly attempting to buy a majority stake in the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok as the White House considers banning the app due to national security concerns.

A recent report from Reuters alleges that over 1,000 Twitter employees and contractors had access to internal tools that were used to hack 130 high-profile accounts to spread a Bitcoin scam. The private information including direct messages of dozens of accounts was also accessed in the hack.

Twitter has admitted in a recent post that of the 130 Twitter accounts targeted in a recent hack, at least 36 accounts had their private messages accessed by hackers, including the account of an elected official in the Netherlands.

Twitter has confirmed that the private information of Twitter users was accessed during the hack earlier this week. The information included email addresses and phone numbers, and in some cases, the intruders were able to download an archive of activity include direct messages and other sensitive content.

The FBI has reportedly opened an investigation into the hack of Twitter that took place this week amid concerns that the company’s seemingly vulnerable systems could pose international security threats.

Following the recent hijacking of numerous high-profile Twitter accounts, security experts have begun attempting to track down the hackers behind the attack, with some believing they may have an idea who was responsible.