Information security analytics

A safe containing a hard drive with the backup of the university’s Social and Economic Sciences Research Center was stolen in April, writes www.healthcareitnews.com. A hard drive containing the personal data of about 1 million people was stolen from Washington State University in April. The university began notifying those impacted last week.

Of the 22 suspects, 20 were employees of an Apple “domestic direct sales company and outsourcing company”. Chinese authorities say they have uncovered a massive underground operation involving the sale of Apple users’ personal data, writes www.hindustantimes.com. Twenty-two people have been detained on suspicion of infringing individuals’ privacy and illegally obtaining their digital personal information, according to a statement Wednesday from police in southern Zhejiang province.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc said on Friday hackers used malware to access customers' card data, including its number, expiration date and internal verification codes, from payment systems at some of its restaurants between March 24 and April 18, says www.channelnewsasia.com.

Kanishk Sajnani, a young ethical hacker who is in his early 20s, recently managed to conduct a hacking spree and reward himself a discounted flight, a free ticket and much more, writes www.hackread.com. However, instead of doing the things he could, he simply informed the respective companies about the flaws their systems had. This is what ethical hacking is all about.  The Air India hack

Hacker pirates threaten to pirate a movie about pirates, reports www.databreachtoday.asia. The response of anyone whose data is being held for ransom by attackers might best be summed up via words sung by Paul McCartney: "I wanna cry, cry, cry." Beginning Friday, that's been the scenario facing multiple victims of the WannaCry ransomware, which has reportedly infected more than 200,000 endpoints in over 150 countries.

Brooks Brothers acknowledged on Friday that a data breach had affected some of its retail locations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico over 11 months from April 2016 to March 2017, according to a company press release.

Jharkhand has over 1.6 million pensioners, 1.4 million of whom have seeded their bank accounts with their Aadhaar numbers to avail of direct bank transfers for their monthly pensions. Their personal details are now freely available, writes www.hindustantimes.com Digital identities of more than a million citizens have been compromised by a programming error on a website maintained by the Jharkhand Directorate of Social Security.

The Hong Kong Registration and Electoral Office reported two laptops went missing with the personal data of 3.7 million voters being compromised, including their IDs, addresses and mobile phone numbers, scmp.com informs. In addition to the voters’ personal data, the devices also stored the details of 1,200 electors of the Election Committee. The two laptops were stolen from a locked room at the AsiaWorld-Expo, the Electoral Office adds and stresses that the data had been encrypted.

A breach of employee information in January at Westminster College in Missouri did not affect student academic records or financial aid information, officials stated this past Saturday, according to a report in the Columbia Daily Tribune, writes www.scmagazine.com.

There was a data breach at the IRS that may put the security of 100-thousand taxpayers at risk. If you fill out your FAFSA for federal student loans through the IRS when you file your taxes, you may be at risk, writes wwlp.com .