Tech Knock

Leaving the social network after Cambridge Analytica scandal, users discover extent of data held   Facebook said: ‘People are expressly asked if they want to give permission to upload their contacts from their phone. As users continue to delete their Facebook accounts in the wake of the  Cambridge Analytica scandal , a number are discovering that the social network holds far more data about them than they expected, including complete logs of incoming and outgoing calls and SMS messages. The #deletefacebook movement took off after the revelations that Facebook had shared with a Cambridge psychologist the personal information of 50 million users, without their explicit consent, which later ended up in the hands of the election consultancy  Cambridge Analytica . Facebook makes it hard for users to delete their accounts,  instead pushing them towards “deactivation” , which leaves all personal data on the company’s servers. When users ask to permanently delete ...

Chicago-based online travel booking company Orbitz, a subsidiary of Expedia, reveals that one of its old websites has been hacked, exposing nearly 880,000 payment card numbers of the people who made purchases online. The data breach incident, which was detected earlier this month, likely took place somewhere between October 2016 and December 2017, potentially exposing customers' information to hackers. According to the company, hackers may have accessed payment card information stored on a consumer and business partner platform, along with customers' personal information, including name, address, date of birth, phone number, email address and gender. Orbitz worked closely with cybersecurity experts and law enforcement to investigate the breach and confirms that the social security numbers for U.S. customers were not exposed in this incident. The company claims to have enhanced the security of its compromised platform, though it assures its customers that the curren...

First notified in November of a data breach incident, popular clothing retailer Forever 21 has now confirmed that hackers stole credit card information from its stores throughout the country for several months during 2017. Although the company did not yet specify the total number of its customers affected by the breach, it did  confirm  that malware was installed on some point of sale (POS) systems in stores across the U.S. at varying times between April 3, 2017, and November 18, 2017. According to the company's investigation, which is still ongoing, the malware was designed to search for and likely steal sensitive customer credit card data, including credit card numbers, expiration dates, verification codes and, in some cases, cardholder names. Forever 21 has been using encryption technology since 2015 to protect its payment processing systems, but during the investigation, the company found that some POS terminals at certain stores had their encryp...

Cybercriminals have stolen a massive trove of Norway's healthcare data in a recent data breach, which likely impacts more than half of the nation's population. An unknown hacker or group of hackers managed to breach the systems of Health South-East Regional Health Authority (RHF) and reportedly stolen personal info and health records of some 2.9 million Norwegians out of the country's total 5.2 million inhabitants. Health South-East RHA is a healthcare organisation that manages hospitals in Norway’s southeast region, including Østfold, Akershus, Oslo, Hedmark, Oppland, Buskerud, Vestfold, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. The healthcare organisation  announced  the data breach on Monday after it had been alerted by HelseCERT, the Norwegian CERT department for its healthcare sector, about an "abnormal activity" against computer systems in the region. HelseCERT also said the culprits behind the data breach are "advanced and professional...