Employees stored more sensitive data on USB drives during the pandemic than ever before.
New research from Digital Guardian has revealed that hundreds of terabytes of potentially sensitive corporate data could be at risk from employees who stored data on USB drives while working remotely during the pandemic.
The firm’s new DG Data Trends Report assessed the risk of sensitive data loss during the Covid-19 crisis. To compile its report, Digital Guardian aggregated and anonymized data from nearly 200 customers of its Managed Security program around the globe.
Source & full story: TechRadar
Israeli security company NSO Group impersonated Facebook as part of a ploy to get users to install its phone-hacking software, a new report alleges.
An investigation from news site Motherboard claims a Facebook security lookalike domain was set up to spread NSO’s Pegasus hacking tool.
It also claimed to have found evidence that servers inside the United States were used to spread the spying tool.
Facebook’s complaint alleged NSO operated the spyware itself. But NSO has asked the court in California to dismiss the case, in part because it says it never uses its spyware – only sovereign governments do.
Source & full story: BBC News
The UK government is conducting a new review into the impact of allowing Huawei telecoms equipment to be used in British 5G networks.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) involvement comes after the US brought fresh sanctions against the Chinese company, citing security fears.
In January, the UK resisted US pressure to ban Huawei from contributing to 5G.
A NCSC spokesman said:
The security and resilience of our networks is of paramount importance. …Following the US announcement of additional sanctions against Huawei, the NCSC is looking carefully at any impact they could have to the UK’s networks.
The sanctions restrict Huawei from using US technology and software to design its semiconductors.
Source & full story: BBC News
Fourteen Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday to urge it to consider probing the short video app TikTok for “blatant disregard” of a consent decree related to children’s privacy.
The letter from members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the FTC’s work on privacy, follows allegations by the Center for Digital Democracy, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and others that TikTok failed to take down videos made by children under the age of 13 as it agreed to do under a 2019 consent agreement with the FTC.
The letter said:
The blatant disregard for the consent decree could encourage other websites to fail to adhere to settlements made with your agency, thereby weakening protections for all Americans,
Source & full story: Reuters
French lawmakers on Wednesday approved a government-backed cellphone app that will alert users if they have been in contact with a person infected by the coronavirus.
The StopCovid app – use of which will remain voluntary – is designed to keep track of users who have been in close proximity over a two-week period. If any become infected, they inform the platform, which alerts the others.
Privacy defenders have expressed fears that the app marks the first step towards a society under constant online surveillance.
Source & full story: France24
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