The European Union (EU) wants to send a clear message to companies that it’s serious about data privacy, suggesting it will still slap fines on data breaches that happen even before the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect in late May if companies don’t disclose them first.
A data leak by a company called AggregateIQ has revealed that the obscure Canadian firm developed the software Cambridge Analytica used and sold to clients during the 2016 election to help Republican campaigns target voters, security firm UpGuard revealed this week. Clues in the data suggest other well known GOP linked data and research firms were also involved.
The departure of Facebook Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos is just the latest in which the respected security executive clashed with higher ups over the handling of a major data breach.
In this week’s Security Ledger Podcast, we talk with Genevieve Southwick, CEO of the B-Sides Las Vegas hacker conference about the information security industry’s #metoo problem and what steps conference organizers are taking to stem sexual assault and harassment at information security events. Also: researcher Alec Muffet talks with us about making a TOR version of Wikipedia (and why it’s not sticking around). Finally, Martin McKeay of Akamai talks about the state of Internet security one year after Mirai. (Spoiler alert: Mirai is still a problem.)
In-brief: In this week’s podcast, Security Ledger Editor in Chief Paul Roberts talks with noted security researcher Robert “RSnake” Hansen about the data breach at Equifax and why the company’s response to it was so lacking. Also: Chris Sumner of the Online Privacy Foundation talks about why Facebook is a killer app for information operations and we talk to the president of ASPertise: a consulting firm by and of professionals with Aspergers and Autism spectrum disorders.
