Security News for the Week Ending October 14, 2022

CEO of Election Software Company Arrested on Personal-Data Theft Charges

Here here is one that seems to have some facts behind it. Los Angeles has charged Konnect founder Eugene Yu with theft of PII and computer hard drives. Konnect is required to keep the data on POLL WORKERS that they are storing in the United States, but it appears that they are storing that data in the People’s Republic of China. Credit: Market Watch

FCC Plans to Ban Sales of Huawei, ZTE

The government banned the purchase of Huawei and ZTE equipment using federal dollars a couple of years ago, but now they are planning to outright ban them due to national security concerns. The FCC actually has the legal powers to do this, so we will see what happens. Credit:

U.S. v. Russia -This Time at the U.N.

The U.N. runs an international telecommunications coordination agency called the International Telecommunications Union or ITU. Russia wants to control the online narrative – like what exactly is cybercrime – so they are trying to take over leading roles at the U.N. The head of the ITU serves a 4 year team, this time starting in January 2023. Russia was running against the U.S. and given the world climate right now, they, thankfully, got clobbered, losing 139 votes for the U.S. candidate and 25 for Russia. It is also the first female ITU Secretary General. Credit: The Record

Toyota Oopsie – We Left the Security Key Exposed to the Public

Toyota is not the first, nor the last – but it should be. They hardcoded security keys into software and then left the source code in a public facing code repository. It happens way too often. This time it took them five years to discover their error. It exposed info on 296,000 customers. Sorry! Credit: The Register

Airbnb and Uber Background Check Company Gets Sued a Lot

Background check company Inflection, used by Airbnb and others, says it is a fair and reliable way to screen people in a matter of seconds. The lawsuits against them indicate that might not be true. People are denied access to services on sites like Airbnb, both as a buyer and a seller as a result of incorrect background checks and they are mad as hell and not going to take it any more. The problem is that an instant background check is hard and not always correct. Apparently, they are not the only one who can’t get the background checks right. If you can afford to sue them you might get it fixed. Checkr, which owns Inflection, has been sued hundreds of times. Credit: Vice

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