Category: data breach

data breach Marriott surveillance Tech travel

Why do hotels collect passport data anyway?

sudshr47 January 4, 2019

TwitterFacebook

Benjamin Braddock begins his affair with Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate by nervously checking into a hotel under the name Mr. Gladstone. After all, in our cultural imagination, booking a room in a hotel is a refuge for anonymity, and often, the vice that comes along with it. But that’s certainly not the case today — if it ever was, beyond the silver screen.

On Friday, Marriott provided an update on the 4-years-long data breach of its Starwood database announced in November. In the breach, hackers were able to access the *unencrypted* passport numbers of more than 5 million hotel guests.

More about Travel, Surveillance, Marriott, Data Breach, and Tech

View More Why do hotels collect passport data anyway?
computer security data breach Government Hack Security security breaches Spy starwood

Marriott now says 5 million unencrypted passport numbers were stolen in Starwood hotel data breach

sudshr47 January 4, 2019

Starwood’s data breach just got both better and worse at the same time. Marriott, the parent company of hotel chain giant Starwood, said it has revised down the number of customers affected by its recently disclosed data breach from 500 million to “fewer than 383 million unique guests.” That doesn’t mean all those 383 million guests […]

View More Marriott now says 5 million unencrypted passport numbers were stolen in Starwood hotel data breach
credit card data breach e-commerce Hack identity theft Security security breaches spokesperson United States

DiscountMugs.com says four months of customer credit cards stolen by hackers

sudshr47 January 4, 2019

DiscountMugs.com, a large online custom mug and apparel store, had a four-month long data breach just before the busy Christmas holiday season. The company said in a letter to state attorney generals that hackers siphoned off credit card numbers from customers who made orders through its site between August 5 and November 16, 2018 using […]

View More DiscountMugs.com says four months of customer credit cards stolen by hackers
Angela Merkel computer security computing data breach Donald Trump Fancy Bear Germany Government Hack national security Security security breaches United States

Hacker leaks data on Angela Merkel and hundreds of German lawmakers

sudshr47 January 4, 2019

A hacker has targeted and released private data on German chancellor Angela Merkel and other senior German lawmakers and officials. The data was leaked from a Twitter account, since suspended, and included email addresses, phone numbers, photo IDs and other personal data on hundreds of senior political figures. According to a government spokesperson, there was […]

View More Hacker leaks data on Angela Merkel and hundreds of German lawmakers
cnil data breach Europe France Newsletter Policy Privacy Uber

French data protection watchdog fines Uber $460,000 for data breach

sudshr47 December 20, 2018

One by one, European countries are slapping Uber with a penalty for the way it handled its 2016 data breach. Today, France’s data protection watchdog, the CNIL, announced it was fining Uber $460,000 (€400,000). This event was a combination of bad security with bad reaction and good timing. Back in 2016, Uber faced a data […]

View More French data protection watchdog fines Uber $460,000 for data breach
China data breach Hacking Marriott Spying

It’s increasingly looking like China was behind the massive Marriott data hack

sudshr47 December 12, 2018

TwitterFacebook

All signs point to China when it comes to the massive Marriott hack that came to light last month.

The data breach that exposed personal data of around 500 million guests of the hotel chain is believed to part of a Chinese state-run espionage operation, according to multiple sources briefed on the U.S. government’s investigation that spoke with the New York Times and Washington Post. 

The intrusion into Marriott International’s Starwood hotel reservation system shared similarities to previous Chinese-government linked intelligence gathering operations. The hackers in the Marriott hotel chain breach used the same cloud hosting service that previous Chinese cyber attacks utilized. The sources familiar with the U.S. investigation also point out that similar techniques, such as server “hopping,” lead to the belief that China is behind the hack.  Read more…

More about China, Hacking, Marriott, Data Breach, and Spying

View More It’s increasingly looking like China was behind the massive Marriott data hack
Canada computer security data breach equifax finance Government Hack money Security security breaches spokesperson web server

Equifax breach was ‘entirely preventable’ had it used basic security measures, says House report

sudshr47 December 10, 2018

A House Oversight Committee report out Monday has concluded that Equifax’s security practices and policies were sub-par and its systems were old and out-of-date, and bothering with basic security measures — like patching vulnerable systems — could’ve prevented its massive data breach last year. It comes a little over a year after Equifax, one of […]

View More Equifax breach was ‘entirely preventable’ had it used basic security measures, says House report
data breach Quora Security Breach TC

Quora says 100 million users may have been affected by data breach

sudshr47 December 4, 2018

Quora said today that a security breach may have compromised data from about 100 million users. In an email sent to users today and a blog post by CEO Adam D’Angelo, the company said a “malicious third party” gained unauthorized access to Quora’s systems on Friday. Its internal security teams and a “leading digital forensics […]

View More Quora says 100 million users may have been affected by data breach
computing data breach equifax founder Hack Have I Been Pwned Internet Marriott Security spokesperson Troy Hunt

Marriott’s poor data breach response is putting victims at risk of phishing

sudshr47 December 3, 2018

Last Thursday, Marriott sent out millions of emails warning of a massive data breach — some 500 million guest reservations had been stolen from its Starwood database. One problem: the email sender’s domain didn’t look like it came from Marriott at all. Marriott sent its notification email from “email-marriott.com,” which is registered to a third […]

View More Marriott’s poor data breach response is putting victims at risk of phishing