All news with #pii tag

Five Americans Plead Guilty to Enabling North Korea IT Fraud

⚖️ The U.S. Department of Justice announced five U.S. citizens pleaded guilty for facilitating North Korea’s illicit IT worker and revenue-generation schemes. The defendants hosted company-issued laptops, supplied or sold U.S. identities, and helped overseas IT workers pass vetting to obtain jobs at American firms. DOJ says the schemes impacted more than 136 U.S. companies, generated over $2.2 million for the DPRK, and compromised the identities of more than 18 U.S. persons.

Shadow IT and Shadow AI: Risks Across Every Industry

🔍 Shadow IT — any software, hardware, or resource introduced without formal IT, procurement, or compliance approval — is now pervasive and evolving into Shadow AI, where unsanctioned generative AI tools expand the attack surface. The article outlines how these practices drive operational, security, and regulatory risk, citing IBM’s 2025 breach-cost data and industry examples in healthcare, finance, airlines, insurance, and utilities. It recommends shifting from elimination to smarter control by improving continuous visibility through real‑time network analysis and vendor integrations that turn hidden activity into actionable intelligence.

DoorDash Discloses October Data Breach Exposing Contacts

🔔 DoorDash disclosed an October data breach after an employee fell for a social engineering scam, allowing an unauthorized third party to access certain user contact information. Notified users were told exposed data varied by person and could include names, physical addresses, phone numbers and email addresses; the company said Social Security Numbers were not accessed. DoorDash said it shut off access, engaged a forensic firm, notified law enforcement, and warned users to watch for phishing; affected users can call a helpline and cite reference code B155060.

Russian Phishing Campaign Creates 4,300 Fake Travel Sites

💳 A Russian-speaking threat actor has registered more than 4,300 domains since early 2025 to host convincing fake travel and hotel booking pages that harvest payment card data. According to Netcraft researcher Andrew Brandt, the campaign—active since February—uses a customizable phishing kit that serves branded pages for platforms like Booking, Expedia, and Airbnb and supports 43 languages. The kit requires a unique AD_CODE in the URL to render targeted branding (otherwise visitors see a blank page), employs fake Cloudflare-style CAPTCHA, and persists state in a cookie so subsequent pages maintain consistent impersonation. Victims are prompted to pay a deposit; entered card numbers, expiry and CVV are processed in the background while a bogus support chat guides users through a sham 3D Secure step to complete the theft.

Synnovis Notifies NHS Clients After 2024 Ransomware

🔔 Synnovis has begun notifying its NHS customers and affected data controllers about the volume of patient information compromised in a June 2024 ransomware attack. The incident, attributed to a Qilin affiliate, saw roughly 400GB of data published and caused widespread disruption to blood services, cancelled appointments and at least one reported death. Synnovis said notifications will be completed by 21 November, citing the 'exceptional scale and complexity' of an unstructured and fragmented dataset, a delay that has drawn sharp criticism from security experts.

Google Sues to Dismantle Lighthouse Phishing Platform

🛡️ Google has filed a lawsuit seeking to dismantle Lighthouse, a China-linked phishing-as-a-service platform accused of powering global SMS phishing ("smishing") campaigns that impersonate USPS and E-ZPass. Google says Lighthouse has impacted more than 1 million victims across 120 countries and that phishing templates even display Google's branding to trick users. The company is pursuing federal claims including RICO, the Lanham Act, and the CFAA while expanding AI and product protections.

GlobalLogic Confirmed as Victim of Cl0p Oracle EBS Exploit

🔒 GlobalLogic has notified 10,471 current and former employees that their data was exposed after a zero-day in Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) was exploited in early October 2025. The company says it patched the vulnerability after confirming data exfiltration on 9 October. Stolen records reportedly include HR and payroll details such as names, dates of birth, passport numbers, salary, bank account and routing numbers, creating a high risk of follow-on phishing and identity fraud. GlobalLogic did not confirm contact by the extortion group, while security firms link the incident to Cl0p, which has targeted dozens of organizations including Harvard and Envoy Air.

EU Commission proposes GDPR changes for AI and cookies

🔓 The European Commission's leaked "Digital Omnibus" draft would revise the GDPR, shifting cookie rules into the regulation and allowing broader processing based on legitimate interests. Websites could move from opt-in to opt-out tracking, and companies could train AI on personal data without explicit consent if safeguards like data minimization, transparency and an unconditional right to object are applied. Privacy groups warn the changes would weaken protections.

ID Verification Laws Fueling a New Wave of Breaches

🔒 The proliferation of age and identity verification laws is forcing organizations to retain sensitive government-issued IDs, increasing breach risk. A recent Discord incident exposed ID images via a compromised third-party provider, showing how regulatory mandates can create high-value data stores. The article advises that MSPs and affected organizations adopt natively integrated platforms and a single-agent, single-console approach to reduce attack surface, simplify operations and centralize visibility to mitigate these new risks.

Email Blackmail and Scams: Regional Trends and Defenses

🔒 Most email blackmail attempts are mass scams that exploit leaked personal data and fear to extort cryptocurrency from victims. The article outlines common themes — fake device hacks, sextortion, and even fabricated death threats — and describes regional campaigns where attackers impersonate law enforcement in Europe and CIS states. It highlights detection signs and practical defenses, urging verification, use of reliable security solutions, and reporting threats through official channels.

Hackers Blackmail Massage Parlour Clients in Korea

🔒 South Korean police uncovered a criminal network that used a malicious app to steal customer data from massage parlours and extort clients. The group tricked nine business owners into installing software that exfiltrated names, phone numbers, call logs and text messages, then sent threatening messages claiming to have video footage. About 36 victims paid between 1.5M and 47M KRW, with attempted extortion near 200M KRW. Authorities traced activity to January 2022 across Seoul, Gyeonggi and Daegu and made arrests in August 2023.

Half of Satellite Traffic Unencrypted, Exposing Data

🔭 Researchers at UC San Diego and the University of Maryland showed that a <$750 motorized satellite‑TV kit can intercept large volumes of geostationary traffic. They captured 3.7TB from 411 transponders across 39 satellites and found roughly half of sensitive streams — including VoIP, SMS, in‑flight Wi‑Fi and military telemetry — were unencrypted. Some operators patched rapidly, but many did not respond. Users should adopt VPNs, end‑to‑end messaging and prefer encrypted cellular services.

Operation Chargeback: Dismantling Global Card-Fraud Rings

🔍 Operation Chargeback led to coordinated raids and arrests targeting three alleged international fraud and money-laundering networks that exploited stolen payment data from more than 4.3 million cardholders across 193 countries. Authorities executed 60 searches and 18 arrest warrants after nearly five years of investigation, seizing assets and digital evidence. Investigators say the groups generated roughly 19 million fraudulent subscription charges, abused payment-provider systems and used shell companies to launder proceeds while masking low-value recurring fees to avoid detection.

WhatsApp screen-sharing scam: risks and protections

🔒 A growing scam exploits WhatsApp’s screen-sharing feature to trick users into exposing verification codes, passwords and banking details during video calls. Attackers pose as banks, service providers or contacts, create urgency, then request screen sharing or the installation of remote-access apps like AnyDesk or TeamViewer. Once granted, they capture OTPs, install malware or coerce transfers, enabling account takeover and financial theft. Stay skeptical: never share screens, passwords or verification codes with strangers.

Data Breach at Major Swedish Supplier Exposes 1.5M Records

🔒 Miljödata, an IT systems supplier for roughly 80% of Sweden's municipalities, disclosed an August 25 cyberattack that exposed personal data tied to 1.5 million people and included a 1.5 BTC extortion demand. The incident disrupted services across multiple regions and prompted immediate involvement from CERT‑SE, police and the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY). Investigations will prioritize Miljödata's security and municipal data handling, with special attention to children's data and protected identities.

Nikkei Slack Compromise Exposes Data of 17,368 People

🔐 Nikkei disclosed that unauthorized actors accessed employee Slack accounts after an employee's computer was infected with malware and credentials were stolen. The breach exposed the names, email addresses, and chat histories of 17,368 registered users. Nikkei discovered the incident in September, enforced mandatory password resets, and voluntarily notified the Personal Information Protection Commission, stating that journalist sources and reporting data were not compromised.

BankBot-YNRK and DeliveryRAT: New Android Banking Threats

🔒 Cybersecurity researchers CYFIRMA and independent analyst F6 have disclosed two active Android trojans—BankBot‑YNRK and DeliveryRAT—that harvest financial and device data from compromised phones. BankBot‑YNRK impersonates an Indonesian government app, performs device fingerprinting and anti-emulation checks, abuses accessibility services to steal credentials and automate transactions, and communicates with a command server. DeliveryRAT, promoted via a Telegram bot, lures Russian users with fake delivery and marketplace apps and delivers malware-as-a-service variants that collect notifications, SMS and call logs and can hide their launchers. Users should avoid untrusted APKs, review permissions, and keep devices updated—Android 14 reduces some accessibility-based abuses.

Ground Zero: Five Critical Steps After a Cyberattack

🛡️ Rapid, methodical incident response is essential when you suspect unauthorized access. Activating a rehearsed IR plan and notifying a cross-functional incident team (including HR, PR, legal and executives) helps you quickly establish scope, preserve evidence and maintain chain of custody. Contain affected systems without destroying forensic data, protect offline backups, notify regulators, insurers and law enforcement, then proceed to eradication, recovery and hardening.

4th Circuit Lowers Proof Threshold in Data Breach Suits

🔒 In October the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that listing stolen consumer data on the dark web can be sufficient to let plaintiffs proceed in data-breach lawsuits. The panel determined that dark-web publication — paywalled or not — increases the risk of fraud and is therefore materially different from mere theft. CISOs should monitor dark-web exposure and preserve evidence of publicization to assess legal and financial risk.

Pennsylvania: Hacker Claims 1.2M Donor Records Breach

🔐 A threat actor claims to have compromised University of Pennsylvania systems and exfiltrated data for roughly 1.2 million students, alumni, and donors, including names, dates of birth, contact details, estimated net worth, donation histories, and sensitive demographic data. The attacker said they gained access via a compromised PennKey SSO account and accessed VPN, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Qlik, SAP, SharePoint, and Box. After access was revoked on October 31 the actor used Marketing Cloud to send offensive emails to about 700,000 recipients and published a 1.7-GB archive of files. Penn says it is investigating; donors should watch for targeted phishing and verify solicitations directly with the university.