Law enforcement needs to protect citizens and their data

Robert Anderson Contributor Robert Anderson served for 21 years in the FBI, retiring as executive assistant director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch. He is currently an advisor at The Chertoff Group and the chief executive of Cyber Defense Labs. Over the past several years, the law enforcement community has grown increasingly concerned […]

View More Law enforcement needs to protect citizens and their data

ICE has a huge license plate database targeting immigrants, documents reveal

Newly released documents reveal Immigration and Customs Enforcement is tracking and targeting immigrants through a massive license plate reader database supplied with data from local police departments — in some cases violating sanctuary laws. The documents, obtained by a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and released Tuesday, reveal the […]

View More ICE has a huge license plate database targeting immigrants, documents reveal

Tufts expelled a student for grade hacking. She claims innocence

As she sat in the airport with a one-way ticket in her hand, Tiffany Filler wondered how she would pick up the pieces of her life, with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt and nothing to show for it. A day earlier, she was expelled from Tufts University veterinary school. As a Canadian, […]

View More Tufts expelled a student for grade hacking. She claims innocence

Cloudflare expands its government warrant canaries

When the government comes for your data, tech companies can’t always tell you. But thanks to a legal loophole, companies can say if they haven’t had a visit yet That’s opened up an interesting clause that allows companies to silently warn customers when the government turns up to secretly raid its stash of customer data […]

View More Cloudflare expands its government warrant canaries

YouTube under fire for recommending videos of kids with inappropriate comments

More than a year on from a child safety content moderation scandal on YouTube and it takes just a few clicks for the platform’s recommendation algorithms to redirect a search for “bikini haul” videos of adult women towards clips of scantily clad minors engaged in body contorting gymnastics or taking an icebath or ice lolly sucking […]

View More YouTube under fire for recommending videos of kids with inappropriate comments

Facebook, Google and Twitter told to do more to fight fake news ahead of European elections

A first batch of monthly progress reports from tech giants and advertising companies on what they’re doing to help fight online disinformation have been published by the European Commission. Platforms including Facebook, Google and Twitter signed up to a voluntary EU code of practice on the issue last year. The first reports cover measures taken […]

View More Facebook, Google and Twitter told to do more to fight fake news ahead of European elections

Millions of bank loan and mortgage documents have leaked online

A trove of more than 24 million financial and banking documents, representing tens of thousands of loans and mortgages from some of the biggest banks in the U.S., has been found online after a server security lapse. The server, running an Elasticsearch database, had more than a decade’s worth of data, containing loan and mortgage […]

View More Millions of bank loan and mortgage documents have leaked online

Police license plate readers are still exposed on the internet

Smile! You’re on camera. At least, your license plate is. You might have heard of automatic license plate recognition — known as ALPR (or ANPR in the U.K. for number plates). These cameras are dotted across the U.S., and are controlled mostly by police departments and government agencies to track license plates — and people — […]

View More Police license plate readers are still exposed on the internet

In revamped transparency report, Apple reveals uptick in demands for user data

Apple’s transparency report just got a lot more — well, transparent. For years, the technology giant released a twice-a-year report on the number of government demands it received. It wasn’t much to look at in the beginning; a seven-page document with only two tables of data. Once in a while, Apple would tack on a […]

View More In revamped transparency report, Apple reveals uptick in demands for user data

FBI kicks some of the worst ‘DDoS for hire’ sites off the internet

The FBI has seized the domains of 15 high-profile distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) websites after a coordinated effort by law enforcement and several tech companies. Several seizure warrants granted by a California federal judge went into effect Thursday, removing several of these “booter” or “stresser” sites off the internet “as part of coordinated law enforcement action […]

View More FBI kicks some of the worst ‘DDoS for hire’ sites off the internet

Marriott says 500 million Starwood guest records stolen in massive data breach

Starwood Hotels has confirmed its hotel guest database of about 500 million customers has been stolen in a data breach. The hotel and resorts giant said in a statement filed with U.S. regulators that the “unauthorized access” to its guest database was detected on or before September 10 — but may have dated back as far […]

View More Marriott says 500 million Starwood guest records stolen in massive data breach