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Kochi Metro Rail Web Site Hacked

Posted April 8, 2013

The website of Kochi Metro Rail was found hacked early today and anti-Israel messages were posted. The messages were blocked immediately and a complaint lodged with the Cyber cell, Kochi Metro sources said. The Cyber cell has registered a complaint in this regard.

The website had been developed by Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT), an autonomous institution set up by the state government, and was being maintained by it.

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Hackers Target Israeli Websites

Posted April 7, 2013

JERUSALEM (AP) — A weekend cyberattack campaign targeting Israeli government websites failed to cause serious disruption, officials said Sunday. The attacks followed warnings in the name of the hacking group Anonymous that it was launching a massive attack.

Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, of the government's National Cyber Bureau, said hackers had mostly failed to shut down key sites.

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iYogi Reviews the Top 5 Online Banking and E-commerce Pitfalls

Posted March 11th, 2011

iYogi, the on-demand tech support provider, today announced a new iYogi Reviews report on the top five online banking and e-commerce pitfalls. The iYogi Reviews report is based on a comprehensive evaluation of responses gathered from thousands of interactions with iYogi customers through iYogi's iMantra knowledge base, and reveals the top problems encountered by users while shopping, paying bills, transferring funds and sending data over the Internet, as well as recommendations on how to combat these problems.

Millions use the Internet to shop at thousands of online stores, conduct online banking transactions, or book vacations, and there is an increasing need for users to take adequate security measures to protect themselves from identity theft and online fraud. The major complaints reported by Internet users to iYogi Certified Technicians related to online banking and e-commerce include: slow system speed during money transactions; lost, stolen or disclosed data; inability to open a webpage used frequently to pay bills; unfamiliar transactions appearing on credit card statements; and inability to access online banking accounts.

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McAfee Offers to Pay for PC Repairs after Bad Update
Posted April 27th, 2010

Antivirus software maker McAfee says it will reimburse "reasonable expenses" associated with a bad update last Wednesday that crashed computers worldwide. The reimbursement will be offered to "impacted home or home office customers who have incurred costs to repair PCs as a result of the security update issue," McAfee said in a statement on its website, and will cover visits to tech support specialists and other repair measures. Steps for recouping costs associated with computer repairs will be posted on the company's website within a few days, the statement continued. The reimbursement is just one of several steps the company has taken to minimize the public fallout from last week's mistake. In addition, the company is also offering to send affected customers a recovery CD via express delivery and to extend their current McAfee subscriptions by two years for free.

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ControlScan Settles FTC Charges
Posted April 27th, 2010

ControlScan, a company that consumers have relied on to certify the privacy and security of online retailers and other Web sites, has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it misled consumers about how often it monitored the sites and the steps it took to verify their privacy and security practices. The settlements will bar future misrepresentations. The founder and former Chief Executive Officer has entered into a separate settlement that requires him to give up $102,000 in ill-gotten gains.

ControlScan offered a variety of privacy and security seals for display on Web sites. Consumers could click on the seals to discover exactly what assurances each seal conveyed. For example, the company’s Business Background Reviewed, Registered Member, and Privacy Protected seals conveyed that ControlScan had verified a Web site’s information-security practices. However, the FTC alleges that ControlScan provided these seals to a Web sites with “little or no verification” of their security protections. Similarly, the FTC alleges that the company provided its Privacy Protected and Privacy Reviewed seals to a Web sites with “little or no verification” of their privacy protections.

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Widespread Data Breaches Uncovered by FTC Probe
FTC Warns of Improper Release of Sensitive Consumer Data on P2P File-Sharing Networks
Posted April 1st, 2010

The Federal Trade Commission has notified almost 100 organizations that personal information, including sensitive data about customers and/or employees, has been shared from the organizations’ computer networks and is available on peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks to any users of those networks, who could use it to commit identity theft or fraud. The agency also has opened non-public investigations of other companies whose customer or employee information has been exposed on P2P networks. To help businesses manage the security risks presented by file-sharing software, the FTC is releasing new education materials that present the risks and recommend ways to manage them.

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Data Breach Costs Exceed $7 Million and Still Climbing
Posted March 4th, 2010

BlueCross-BlueShield of Tennessee has reported that 57 unencrypted hard drives were stolen on Oct. 2nd from a closet at the health insurance company's training center in Chattanooga's Eastgate Town Center mall. The theft has provided the thieves access to the personal data for upwards of 500,000 customers. The drives contained recordings of more than one million customer support calls as well as 300,000 screen shots. Many of the screen shots included customers names, birthdates and Social Security numbers which can be used in identity theft. The report states that BlueCross is now auditing its security practices. The process of investigating the breach and notifying customers has cost more than $7 million so far according to Roy Vaughn, a BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee spokesman, and it will be several more months before the notification effort is concluded.

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