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Governance

CCPA Amendments Signed; Draft Regulations Released

Scott Ferguson  •  October 14, 2019

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law six amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act as well as another bill updating the state's long-standing data breach law. Meanwhile, draft CCPA implementation regulations have been unveiled.

Endpoint Security

Thoma Bravo to Buy Sophos for $3.9 Billion

Scott Ferguson  •  October 14, 2019

Private-equity firm Thoma Bravo, which already has stakes in several cybersecurity companies, plans to buy U.K.-based security company Sophos in a $3.9 billion deal, the two companies announced Monday. The Sophos board will "unanimously recommend" the sale to shareholders, the company says.

Governance

Imperva's Breach Post-Mortem: API Key Left Exposed

Jeremy Kirk  •  October 14, 2019

Cybersecurity vendor Imperva's breach post-mortem should serve as a warning to all those using cloud services: One mistake can turn into a calamity. The company accidently left an AWS API key exposed to the internet; the key was then stolen and used to steal a sensitive customer database.

Breach Notification

Hacked Off: Lawsuit Alleges CafePress Used Poor Security

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 11, 2019

Personalized product retailer CafePress has been hit with a lawsuit alleging that it failed to notify 23 million customers about a data breach in a timely manner or follow security best practices. The company was allegedly still using outdated SHA-1 to hash passwords, which can be easily cracked.

Account Takeover

Singapore Man Charged in Large-Scale Cryptomining Scheme

Apurva Venkat  •  October 11, 2019

A Singapore man allegedly ran a large-scale cryptocurrency mining scheme that involved using stolen identities to access Amazon and Google cloud computing resources, according to a 14-count U.S. Justice Department indictment.

3rd Party Risk Management

Analysis: Twitter's Phone Number Repurposing 'Mistake'

Nick Holland  •  October 11, 2019

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report analyzes Twitter's repurposing of user phone numbers for targeted advertising. Plus: A discussion of 5G security issues and findings of the Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment.

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

How Cybercriminals Continue to Innovate

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 10, 2019

Online attack threats continue to intensify, with criminals preferring ransomware, DDoS attacks and business email compromises, warns Europol, the EU's law enforcement intelligence agency. After numerous successful disruptions by police, criminals have responded by launching increasingly complex attacks.

Biometrics

Privacy: How Technology Is Outpacing Regulation

Suparna Goswami  •  October 10, 2019

To ensure privacy is protected, governments need to make sure standards and regulations keep pace with the latest technology developments, including facial recognition and other forms of artificial intelligence, says Steven Feldstein, an associate professor at Boise State University.

Incident & Breach Response

FBI: Cybercriminals Are Bypassing Multifactor Authentication

Akshaya Asokan  •  October 9, 2019

The FBI is warning banks, businesses and other organizations that cybercriminals are using social engineering and other technical techniques to circumvent multifactor authentication security protections.

Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks

Preventing Election Interference: New Recommendations

Apurva Venkat  •  October 9, 2019

To counter efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, the Senate Intelligence Committee recommends new security measures for social media companies, new legislation and creating an interagency task force.

Fraud Management & Cybercrime

Twitter Apologizes for Repurposing Phone Numbers

Jeremy Kirk  •  October 9, 2019

Twitter apologized on Tuesday for repurposing phone numbers provided by users for security features for use in targeted advertising, claiming the move was a mistake. Earlier, Facebook was reprimanded for a similar practice.

Governance

NSA Is Latest Intelligence Agency to Sound VPN Patch Alarm

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 9, 2019

The U.S. National Security Agency is the latest intelligence agency to warn that unpatched flaws in three vendors' VPN servers are being actively exploited by nation-state attackers. Security experts say such alerts, which are rare, are a clear sign that serious damage is being caused.