Data Breaches

Critical Update: The Government’s Cloud Anxiety 

As more federal agencies shift to cloud computing, officials are reexamining the responsibilities customers and service providers must bear to secure data.

  • By Mariam Baksh

Hackers Take Data for Further Reconnaissance in Breach of Federal Agency

Initial access to the agency’s system was possibly due to failure to fix a known VPN vulnerability, a patch for which was released in April 2019.

  • By Mariam Baksh

IG: CBP Responsible for 2019 Biometrics Breach, Though No Federal Networks Were Compromised

A ransomware attack on a Customs and Border Protection vendor leaked facial images on more than 184,000 travelers—something agency security and policy should have prevented.

  • By Aaron Boyd

Audit: HUD Doesn’t Ensure Sensitive Data It Shares Is Secure

A Government Accountability Office pointed to high turnover rates for top privacy and IT security officials as a reason for the agency's poor performance.

  • By Mila Jasper

46,000 Veterans' Data Exposed In Financial Services Center Breach

Hackers were able to divert payments headed to private sector health care providers.

  • By Aaron Boyd

CISA, International Counterparts Highlight Mistakes Organizations Make After a Cyber Intrusion

A lot of what’s necessary to appropriately respond to a cyber incident should happen way in advance.

  • By Mariam Baksh

Survey: Nearly 3 in 4 Americans Want More Government Oversight on Data Privacy

Slightly less than half of Americans say they wouldn’t share any sort of sensitive information with a business for any reason.

  • By Frank Konkel

Using Automated Security Protocols Reduce the Cost of Data Breaches, Report Says

U.S. agencies lead in adopting security automation and orchestration, an expert said.  

  • By Mila Jasper

CIA Report Prompts Call for DHS Cyber Authority Over Intelligence Agencies

Senator asks the director of national intelligence why his office hasn’t implemented a basic anti-phishing tool like the rest of the government.

  • By Mariam Baksh

U.S. Marshals Service Breach Exposed Personal Data of 387,000 Prisoners

The agency notified affected individuals this month after learning about the intrusion in December.

  • By Mariam Baksh

Preventing Remote Workers from Being Sitting Ducks

Unlike workers in other industries, most federal workers have largely conducted business within the four walls of their agency.

  • By Michael Morrison

DISA Confirms Data Breach Affecting 200,000 People

Defense officials provided few details but said the affected systems have since been secured.

  • By Frank Konkel

America’s Hopelessly Anemic Response to One of the Largest Personal-Data Breaches Ever

The government has indicted four members of China’s People’s Liberation Army for hacking into the credit-reporting agency Equifax. The question is why.

  • By Robert D. Williams, The Atlantic

Justice Department Attributes Equifax Hack to Chinese Military Officers 

Officials highlight the theft of intellectual property, in addition to personal information.

  • By Mariam Baksh

Featured eBooks

Biometrics in Action
The Future of Defense Networks
How the Cloud is Helping the Government’s Pandemic Response

German Researchers Accessed Service Members’ Sensitive Medical Data—and One Lawmaker Wants Answers

Sen. Mark Warner wants to know what the Defense Health Agency is doing to secure “a significant number” of medical images.

  • By Brandi Vincent

Senators Renew Effort to Safeguard People’s Data Online

The bill would make companies subject to fines from the Federal Trade Commission if they poorly protect data.

  • By Frank Konkel

Russian Hackers Launch Cyberattacks Against International Athletics Organizations

The attacks come as the World Anti-Doping Agency threatens to bar Russia from participating in major competitions, including the Olympics and other world championship events.

  • By Jack Corrigan

Senators Push FTC to Investigate Amazon’s Role in Capital One Hack

The bank was renting servers from the tech company, which were exploited in the attack. 

  • By Brandi Vincent

Privacy Bill Could Put Dishonest Tech Execs Behind Bars

The Mind Your Own Business Act would expand FTC authorities and introduce comprehensive new protections for consumers’ personal data.

  • By Brandi Vincent

VA Exposes Sensitive Veteran Data to Thousands of Unauthorized Employees

The files included medical records, internal communications and other sensitive information dating back to 2016, the inspector general found.

  • By Jack Corrigan

Survey: Cloud Customers, Not Providers, Increasingly Responsible for Managing Threats 

The Cloud Security Alliance found the issues that traditionally plagued cloud service providers aren’t as big of a problem today.

  • By Jack Corrigan