Tag: privacy

Child Smart Watches

Podcast: Why Germany wants Smart Watches destroyed and One Nation Under Trolls

In this week’s Security Ledger podcast, sponsored by our friends at CyberArk, we talk about the German government’s recent decision to declare kids smart watches “surveillance devices” and to order their destruction. Also: Adrian Shabaz of Freedom House comes in to talk to us about the latest Internet Freedom report, which finds that governments are increasingly manipulating online content to shape online discussions and even the outcome of elections at home and abroad. And finally: leaked credentials in a GitHub repository may have been behind Uber’s loss of information on some 50 million customers. In a preview of a Security Ledger spotlight podcast, we hear from Elizabeth Lawler of CyberArk about the proliferation of so-called “Dev Ops secrets” and how companies need to do a better managing the permissions assigned to applications. 

smart watches

Citing Anti Surveillance Laws, German Government Orders Child Smart Watches Destroyed

Citing that country’s strict laws against unauthorized video and audio recording, Germany’s government has banned smart watches marketed to children and ordered parents to destroy the devices, which it labeled illegal surveillance tools. 

Beset by Lawsuits, Scams, Investigations, Equifax names Source of Breach

In-brief: Beset by a plunging share price, class action lawsuits in dozens of states, pending Congressional hearings and a FTC investigation, Equifax on Wednesday finally settled speculation and named a six month old hole in a common software platform, Apache Struts, as the cause of a massive hack.

A Year Later: FDA approves Software Fix for Security Flaws in Pacemakers

In-brief: The FDA as approved a software update to software security holes in pacemakers made by Abbott. But doctors and patients will have to weigh the risks of apply the patch. 

Heading to College? Job 1: Lock Down your ‘Directory Information’

In-brief: Colleges in the U.S. give away personally identifying data on millions of students each year as unregulated “directory information.” Job 1 when arriving on campus: opting out and protecting your data.