Cyber Essentials is a UK government scheme that outlines the basic steps that organisations can take to secure their systems. Implementing its five controls effectively will help you prevent about 80% of cyber attacks. In…
Virginia Data Privacy Law
Virginia is about to get a data privacy law, modeled on California’s law.Read more: schneier.com
Security Analysis of Apple’s “Find My…” Protocol
Interesting research: “Who Can Find My Devices? Security and Privacy of Apple’s Crowd-Sourced Bluetooth Location Tracking System“: Abstract: Overnight, Apple has turned its hundreds-of-million-device ecosystem into the world’s largest crowd-sourced location tracking network called offline…
The Problem with Treating Data as a Commodity
Excellent Brookings paper: “Why data ownership is the wrong approach to protecting privacy.” From the introduction: Treating data like it is property fails to recognize either the value that varieties of personal information serve or…
Cell Phone Location Privacy
We all know that our cell phones constantly give our location away to our mobile network operators; that’s how they work. A group of researchers has figured out a way to fix that. “Pretty Good…
Changes in WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy
If you’re a WhatsApp user, pay attention to the changes in the privacy policy that you’re being forced to agree with. In 2016, WhatsApp gave users a one-time ability to opt out of having account…
Eavesdropping on Phone Taps from Voice Assistants
The microphones on voice assistants are very sensitive, and can snoop on all sorts of data: In Hey Alexa what did I just type? we show that when sitting up to half a meter away,…
US Schools Are Buying Cell Phone Unlocking Systems
Gizmodo is reporting that schools in the US are buying equipment to unlock cell phones from companies like Cellebrite: Gizmodo has reviewed similar accounting documents from eight school districts, seven of which are in Texas,…
Mexican Drug Cartels with High-Tech Spyware
Sophisticated spyware, sold by surveillance tech companies to Mexican government agencies, are ending up in the hands of drug cartels: As many as 25 private companies — including the Israeli company NSO Group and the…