Vimeo sued for storing faceprints of people without their say-so

The suit was filed under BIPA, the Illinois law that requires written consent to grab people’s faceprints – the same law Facebook’s battling. Continue reading Vimeo sued for storing faceprints of people without their say-so

Ransomware cripples Internet and phone lines at Rockford Public Schools District

A ransomware attack on Rockford Public Schools (RPS) District 205 in the State of Illinois has downed school systems, including phone lines, the district said in a letter to staff and parents. The outage will likely last “several more days”… Continue reading Ransomware cripples Internet and phone lines at Rockford Public Schools District

Facebook facial recognition: class action suit gets court’s go ahead

The court said facial recognition could well harm privacy rights, given its “detailed, encyclopedic, and effortlessly compiled” biometrics collection. Continue reading Facebook facial recognition: class action suit gets court’s go ahead

Unveiling its latest cohort, Alchemist announces $4 million in funding for its enterprise accelerator

The enterprise software and services-focused accelerator Alchemist has raised $4 million in fresh financing from investors BASF and the Qatar Development Bank, just in time for its latest demo day unveiling 20 new companies. Qatar and BASF join previous investors, including the venture firms Mayfield, Khosla Ventures, Foundation Capital, DFJ and USVP, and corporate investors […] Continue reading Unveiling its latest cohort, Alchemist announces $4 million in funding for its enterprise accelerator

A Biochemist Is Beating a GOP Incumbent Backed by the Chemical Industry in Key House Race

In the extremely tight race for Illinois’s sixth district seat, a recent scandal over dangerous emissions from a medical supply plant has brought environmental issues front and center. Continue reading A Biochemist Is Beating a GOP Incumbent Backed by the Chemical Industry in Key House Race

Phishing attack exposes data of more than a million patients across Midwest

Nearly 1.4 million people across the U.S. Midwest may have had their personal information exposed in a data breach at one of the region’s largest health care networks.  UnityPoint Health, a network of hospitals, clinics, and home care services in Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, said this week that multiple internal email accounts were compromised between March 14 and April 3, following a series of phishing attacks.  The phishing emails were disguised to appear to have originated from a “trusted executive” within UnityPoint Health.  The stolen data included patient names, addresses, dates of birth, extensive medical records including surgical information and lab results, insurance information and, in some cases, Social Security, bank account, and driver’s license numbers.  According to UnityPoint Health’s press release, the attack was likely financially motivated, rather than focused on obtaining patient information, as the hackers tried to use the company’s email system to divert payroll or vendor payments.  Stolen personal […]

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The Mysterious Disappearance of North America’s First Dogs

When people migrated to North America some 10,000 years ago, they brought their canine companions with them. Continue reading The Mysterious Disappearance of North America’s First Dogs

DHS notifies 21 states of Russian hacking attempts prior to 2016 election

Nearly a year after the end of the 2016 campaign, the Department of Homeland Security on Friday night notified 21 states of attempted Russian hacking against their election systems. A small number of networks were compromised, CyberScoop has learned, but none of the targeted systems involved the tallying of votes. For the majority of the states targeted, only early-stage activity like scanning was seen. A minority of targeted states saw serious attempts to compromise networks, some of which were successful. ,Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Maryland, Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington are among the states that have acknowledged receiving a notification. The remaining states are publicly unknown. News of the targeting first came to light in June when Jeanette Manfra, acting deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity and communications at the DHS’s National Protection and Programs Directorate, testified during a hearing held by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that focused on Russian interference in the U.S. election. […]

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Cybersecurity doubts may spook voters in future elections

A new poll says growing concerns over cybersecurity could lead to millions of Americans staying home during the 2018 midterm elections and the subsequent 2020 presidential election. More than one in four American voters will consider not voting in upcoming elections due to concerns over cybersecurity, according to a new poll published Wednesday by the U.S. cybersecurity firm Carbon Black. That’s a jump of nearly ten percentage points from last year’s poll. The doubts are sharpest when it comes to the ability of state and local election authorities to defend against a cyberattack. Less than half of voters (45 percent) trust local authorities on cybersecurity, a number reflecting last month’s report that “election-related systems in 21 states that were targeted” by Russian hackers during the 2016 presidential election. Yet, less than half (47 percent) of American voters believed the 2016 election was influenced by foreign entities. That’s a sharp break with the U.S. intelligence community, but is […]

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