PALM BEACH, FL - Right at the start of the year's busiest shopping season, retailer Macy's notified impacted customers (by letter) that an unauthorized third party was able to access sensitive customer payment information from the Macys.com checkout and wallet pages. Macy’s notified impacted customers (by letter); portion of letter. The following information may have been accessed if it was typed into the affected web-pages by a customer: Payment card … [Read more...]
Cryptocurrency Exchange BitMEX Called “Outrageously Incompetent” for Using “CC”
PALM BEACH, FL – BitMex, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2014 has accidentally emailed its users with the CC (carbon copy) field rather than the “private” BCC (blind carbon copy) field leading to outrage by many of its users. In a tweet posted on Nov. 1, crypto-currency attorney Jake Chervinsky said the leak was done in the most “outrageously incompetent way imaginable.” https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1190171229031936000 BitMEX … [Read more...]
Think Your Domains Are Safe by Using Two Factor Authentication? Think Again
PALM BEACH, FL – Sometimes I read stories that really make me think (and worry). For those who have great domains under management, you might feel super-safe by using “two factor authentications”, where your mobile device is used to verify each login you make to your registry account by sending you a text message for confirmation. Two Factor Authentication (2FA) What is two factor authentication (2FA)? I’ve often thought how horrible it might be if someone got … [Read more...]
U.S. GDPR: The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Goes Into Effect January 2020
PALM BEACH, FL - The US's answer to European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), enacted in 2018, will create new consumer rights relating to the access to, deletion of, and sharing of personal information that is collected by businesses. It also requires California's Attorney General to solicit broad public participation and adopt regulations to further the CCPA's purposes. The proposed regulations will establish … [Read more...]
New “Mind Your Own Business Act” Allows for Fines, Jail Time for Privacy Violations
WASHINGTON - Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has introducedlegislation, called the Mind Your Own Business Act, that would make it more difficult for online platforms to collect and use customer data. The bill is in some ways similar to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Among other things, the bill would: Give the Federal Trade Commission the authority to establish minimum privacy and cyber-security standards. Allow the FTC to … [Read more...]
FTC Warns Consumers of Fake Equifax Data Breach Websites for Settlement Claims
PALM BEACH, FL – The Federal Trade Commission is warning Internet users, all 147 million people who were affected by the Equifax Data Breach in 2017, to beware of fake Equifax settlement websites which have been setup by thieves trying to steal consumers information when they attempt to file a claim online. Typically, users are sent an email that a class action lawsuit has resulted in a settlement making them eligible for credit monitoring services and/or a cash claim … [Read more...]
It’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month; Stay Safe With Simple Online Tips
PALM BEACH, FL –The Attorney General of the State of Florida, Ashley Moody has issued a Consumer Alert in recognition of National Cyber-security Awareness Month. The video details some simple steps consumers can take to help avoid becoming a victim of various security threats and online scams such as those which target Internet users with tech support, malware, phishing and ransomware. Today more than ever, our daily lives are dependent on the internet. While advances … [Read more...]
885 Million Customer Records Exposed by Country’s Largest Title Company, FAF
PALM BEACH - Earlier this week, it was reported that one of the country's largest titles companies, First American Financial Corp (NYSE: FAF), unknowingly exposed up to 885 million files related to real estate title insurance records dating from 2003 to 2019. Anyone with a URL for a valid document could view other documents by modifying a single digit in the URL. The records exposed by the website included critical financial information and documents such … [Read more...]
General Data Protection Regulation and Cookie Policies, No Big Deal, Or Is It?
PALM BEACH - They are everywhere and becoming more and more annoying. It is now all too common to be presented with messages on each website you visit; they all want you to opt in to their cookie and privacy policy due to the new General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR. It seems like an unnecessary distraction; you hit the button to accept the policy and you carry on. No big deal. But is that all there is to it? Today I sent someone an article to read. They didn’t … [Read more...]
Half of All U.S. Households Likely Victims of New Data Leak; 80 Million Records Exposed
PALM BEACH – A new data leak will likely make victims out of what has been estimated at approximately half of all adults in the United States; 80 million records of those over age 40. This new leak is the cause of an undisclosed company which hosts its database with Microsoft services and the information was freely available on the Internet for those who knew the location of the data, until this week according to Forbes.com's Kate O'Flaherty who contributes as a … [Read more...]
Almost 10 Years Now Dealing With Google’s Ambiguous “(Not Provided)” Keywords
NEW YORK – I remember when reviewing my domains traffic statistics was not only informative, but fun. I loved to see how my SEO efforts led to pages bringing in more and more keyword traffic from search terms the pages ranked well for. Such is not the case these days as A) most of the free traffic has dried up due to ads, maps, local listings, etc; and B) Google has removed all the keywords that lead to page traffic (within statistics programs), so its not much fun … [Read more...]
Robo Callers, Phone Spoofing, Auto Dialers; It’s No Longer Annoying, It’s Disruptive
NEW YORK, NY – Everyone gets them - and it’s starting to go from nuisance, to disruptive. Robocalls, Spammers and other automated dialers; it’s beginning to actually go from annoying to interfering with my day to day operations. They come in on both my telephones and mobile device. Constantly, all day and it is becoming far more than a nuisance to the point where the FCC is going to have to start getting more aggressive on this practice. Isn’t that what they do? I … [Read more...]
Personal Info of 500 Million Guests Exposed in Marriott’s Starwood Reservation System
NEW YORK, NY - One of the world's leading global hotel groups disclosed that a guest reservation database, which covers a number of major hotel brands, suffered a large data breach. An internal investigation showed that unauthorized access had been occuring since 2014. The intrusion went unnoticed for four years by Starwood, which was acquired by Marriott in 2016 for $13.6 billion. It was uncovered in early September, when a security tool alerted Marriott officials to an … [Read more...]
Alphabet Releases App to Prevent DNS Manipulation, Deter Online Censorship
NEW YORK, - Google’s Alphabet has released a new Android app called “Intra” which prevents “DNS manipulation”, a process used often by ISPs to redirect invalid domain name resolution to their own version of branded search results, usually accompanied by search engine ads – when used nefariously, it is also a tactic of hackers who steal and redirect users to phishing sites or to otherwise dupe them into downloading viruses and spyware. The app is made available by a company … [Read more...]
Shortcut to GDPR Preparation for Sites and Services That Do Not Target EU Users
NEW YORK - As you are probably well aware due to the number of emails you are receiving, by next Friday, May 25th, 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) will go into full effect. You should be preparing to update your Privacy Policy even if your site does not target EU users. I wanted to share what I have learned so far as I prepare to update some of my United States websites. I urge you to seek out your own advice and council on what to do to bring your … [Read more...]