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The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently issued a proposed order requiring BetterHelp, an online counseling service, to pay $7.8 million over misrepresentations to consumers and improper disclosures of consumers’ health information to advertisers, such as Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo, and Pinterest.[1] This order and consent agreement comes a month after the FTC entered a settlement with GoodRx for similar privacy violations, which we examined in the following article here.…

Continue Reading BetterHelp… Themselves: FTC Fines Company for Improper Deceptive Advertising Practices

Note: This story featuring commentary from Dykema’s Cinthia Granados Motley was originally published by Bloomberg Gov. 

  • Critical infrastructure industries would have to report hacks
  • Spending deal heading for House vote later on Wednesday

By Maria Curi | March 9, 2022, 5:31AM ET

Cybersecurity legislation that would impose new hack and ransomware reporting requirements on businesses was included in a spending bill lawmakers unveiled early Wednesday.

The Senate passed the cyber reporting requirements on March 1 under a bill (S. 3600) from Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich). Peters previewed their inclusion in the spending bill Tuesday. …
Continue Reading Cyberattack Reporting Requirements Included in Spending Deal

It has been impossible to ignore the constant spam of news articles detailing the epidemic of malicious attempts at data disruption and theft. While the cybersecurity risks of ransomware, malicious data extraction, and business e-mail compromise have been top of mind for professionals in heavily regulated industries for some time now, data from 2020 and the first half of 2021 compels an alarming new conclusion: cybercriminals are no longer a problem just for banks, health care organizations and oil pipelines to worry about. Businesses from a wide range of previously untargeted industries are now squarely in the cross-hairs of malicious threat actors.
Continue Reading Cybercriminals Finding Success In Targeting New Industries

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The FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) have issued a joint warning that malicious cyber actors are targeting kindergarten through twelfth-grade (K-12) educational institutions. These actors are initiating ransomware attacks, data thefts, and general disruption of distance learning efforts. The agencies expect these attacks to continue through the 2020-21 academic year.

Among other things, cyber actors have launched ransomware attacks against school computer systems, rendering them inaccessible for distance learning and other basic functions. They have also stolen and threatened to leak confidential student data and personal information unless the institutions paid a ransom. In August and September 2020, 57 percent of ransomware incidents reported to MS-ISAC involved K-12 school, compare to 28 percent of such incidents from January through July. …
Continue Reading Cyber Actors Hit K-12 Distance Learning Efforts With Ransomware and Phishing Attacks

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Last week FireEye announced publicly that it had suffered a cyber-attack by  a “highly sophisticated state-sponsored attacker utilizing novel techniques.”[1] FireEye is a leading cybersecurity firm whom provides information security services and tools, including forensic investigation services, to high profile clients worldwide. In its public disclosure of the breach, FireEye reported the threat actor specifically targeted its Red Team tools. FireEye then preemptively released the means and methods to detect those Red Team tools. In its investigation of the incident, FireEye discovered that a widely used IT service provider, SolarWinds®, had also been hacked. The threat actor infiltrated SolarWinds and then packaged a malicious trojan into a normal SolarWinds update. SolarWinds believes as many as 18,000 clients may have download the update with the malicious trojan.
Continue Reading CISA Issues Warning to Mitigate Widespread Vulnerability

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On November 9, the FTC announced a settlement of its complaint against Zoom Video Communications, Inc. The complaint charged Zoom with deceptive and unfair privacy and security practices, including claiming that it offered end-to-end encryption.

The end-to-end encryption claim has garnered the most attention. As the complaint states, Zoom represented that it offered end-to-end encryption. Instead, as this blog has previously explained, Zoom offered transport encryption, which meant that the Zoom service itself could access the unencrypted video and audio content of meetings. This meant that the confidentiality of recorded Zoom meetings depended entirely upon Zoom servers’ security from hackers—a particular concern for some users given that Zoom has servers in China. (As of October 26, Zoom began offering true end-to-end encryption as a technical preview, meaning that the company is proactively seeking feedback from its users.)…
Continue Reading FTC Settles Complaint Against Zoom Regarding End-to-End Encryption

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“This article was originally published with Security Toolbox on September 15, 2020. You can view the original content, here.”

Domestic and international politics have invaded the field of data security, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only added to this invasion. Shane O’Donnell a partner & Chief Audit Executive at The Mako Group and Sean Griffin, a member at Dykema explains how security leaders can safeguard their crucial IT infrastructure in this new era of data security and navigate foreign and domestic politically motivated leaks.

Like it or not, domestic and international politics have invaded the field of data security.  Of course, COVID-19 has assisted this invasion, but other political factors from the upcoming US election to this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests have played a part. Data security professionals must therefore keep an eye not only on their IT infrastructure but the practical consequences of recent political actions. …
Continue Reading Political Cost of Data Leaks: Data Security in the Crosshairs

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Months ago, the Firewall warned that cybercriminals were taking advantage of the anxiety and insecurity from COVID-19 to promulgate phishing schemes, malware, and other schemes.  Interpol recently released a report (click here to download PDF from Interpol) warning of these dangers and other cybercriminal activity that exploits the current COVID-19 environment. As the Firewall advised in April, Interpol’s report notes that cybercriminals are taking advantage of the increased security vulnerabilities arising from the sudden shift to remote work.

Interpol groups the recent COVID-related cybercriminal activity into five categories. …
Continue Reading COVID-19 Increases Data Security Threats, Interpol Warns

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After the Fourth Circuit held that a commercial general liability (“CGL”) policy could cover a data incident in 2016, confusion arose as to whether CGL policies would continue to cover data breaches. A recent California lawsuit by the smart-TV maker Vizio against two of its insurance companies shows that this confusion also arises when an insured invokes CGL policies to cover litigation arising from alleged data misuse.

The smart-TV maker Vizio has faced multiple proposed class actions arising from the alleged sharing of its customers’ viewing data with third parties. Vizio recently reached a $17 million settlement to resolve multidistrict litigation (MDL) on behalf of 16 million Vizio owners alleging the sale of their data without their consent.
Continue Reading Somebody’s Watching Me: A Recent Smart-TV Lawsuit Seeks Insurance Coverage for Privacy Litigation

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Recently, this blog warned about Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)—state-sponsored hackers that attack U.S. companies in the hopes of sowing political, technological, or financial disruption. In particular, we warned that healthcare companies were a favorite APT target, as foreign governments sought to extract data relating to healthcare research.

Security officials in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada recently announced that a Russian APT called APT29 is targeting organizations involved in national and international COVID-19 responses. According to U.S. intelligence services, APT29 is part of the SVR, Russia’s CIA equivalent, and UK officials also blame it for attacks against the 2016 presidential election.…

Continue Reading Recent Russian Cyberattacks Against Coronavirus Researchers and Other Industries Provides a Lesson on Cyber Preparedness