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Security News for the Week Ending July 19, 2019

FTC Approves $5 Billion Fine for Facebook The FTC commissioners reportedly approved an approximately $5 billion fine of Facebook for violating the 2011 consent decree in conjunction with the Cambridge Analytica mess. To put that in perspective, Facebook’s revenue just for 4th quarter of last year was $16.9 billion and their profit for that quarter […]

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Phone Apps Collect User Data Even If You Deny Permissions

All smartphones are data collection machines; hopefully everyone understands that.  There are an amazing number of sensors on the device and many apps just ask for everything.  If the user grants that, then the app can harvest all that data and likely sell it, either individually or in the aggregate. Researchers took a tiny sample […]

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Welcome to the Surveillance State

Let me first say that there is nothing illegal about what follows.  You may not like it, but it is not illegal. Using a public records request, Motherboard obtained a user manual for the Palantir surveillance system called Gotham. The system is used by law enforcement around country (including, for example, New York, New Orleans, […]

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Security News for the Week Ending July 12, 2019

FBI and DHS Raid State Driver’s License Database Photos The FBI and DHS/ICE have been obtaining millions of photos from state DMV driver’s license databases.  The FBI and DHS have do not feel that they have ask permission to do this. The FBI conducts 4,000  facial recognition searches a  month.  While the searches might be […]

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Magecart, the Credit Card Stealing Monster, Is Alive and Well

In one research report researchers have discovered Magecart attacks affecting 17,000 web domains including some in the Alexa Top 2000.  You may remember that Magecart is what took down British Airways and likely caused them to be fined 183 million Pounds by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. Magecart is not a single hacker or even […]

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