Russia’s Secret Intelligence Agency Hacked: ‘Largest Data Breach In Its History.’

“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.” 

~Ursula K. Le Guin

“The beautiful thing about fear is that when you run to it, it runs away.” 

~Robin Sharma

Russia’s Secret Intelligence Agency Hacked: ‘Largest Data Breach In Its History.’

Or maybe it’s a fake hack, and what comes out will be disinformation.


Putin critic hospitalised after mystery 'allergy' in prison - SBS News 

Putin is running out of options to extend his power

Leonid Bershidsky, via Bloomberg

Putin has repeatedly and publicly rejected the straightforward extension scenario, insisting on democratic legitimacy as the basis for his rule.

ISN’T THIS WHERE THE WORD “KOW TOW” COMES FROM?:  American movie studios appease Chinese censors.

  IT DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU MEAN BY “WORK.” It’s starting to look like even China can’t make socialism work. It works really well at empowering people who couldn’t make it in a free market economy, and steering lots of goodies to them.

Hacker and over 100 million IDs in US
The hacker did not gain access to credit card account numbers, but about 140,000 social security numbers and 80,000 linked bank account numbers were compromised, Capital One said.
About 1 million social insurance numbers of the company’s Canadian credit card customers were also compromised.

Proving you deserve $20,000 from the Equifax settlement will be nearly impossible

Follow-up to my previous posting – Equifax data breach settlement: How to file a claim for $125 or free credit reporting, please see the following information [h/t Pete Weiss]:

• Wired – “f you’re one of the 147 million people in the United States affected by the egregious Equifax credit bureau hack in 2017, you were probably resigned to getting some free credit monitoring out of it and moving on…”
• CNBC: “Equifax will pay $671 million to settle numerous state class-action lawsuits and investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, New York Department of Financial Services and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the company said Monday. The deal, which is still subject to a six-month court approval process, will establish a consumer restitution fund of up to $425 million, which will pay for credit monitoring from all three bureaus and any “out-of-pocket losses related to the breach.” As an alternative, consumers can request a $125 cash payment if they already have been signed up for credit monitoring services that will continue for at least six months. Consumers may also be eligible for payments of up to $20,000 for time they spent remedying fraud or misuse of personal information or out-of-pocket losses. But that will likely be an uphill battle. As CNBC previously reported and as  repeated several times on a conference call Monday, the data connected with the Equifax breach has never been found for sale on the dark web. Instead, intelligence experts and security executives have told CNBC that the information was likely stolen by a foreign intelligence agency for spying purposes. This means proving your data was misused as a result of the breach would be a difficult fight…”
• The biggest data breach fines, penalties and settlements so far – “Hacks and data thefts, enabled by weak security, cover-ups or avoidable mistakes have cost these companies a total of nearly $1.23 billion and counting.” [Note – Do these fines result into improved, comprehensive and effective data privacy? To the contrary, the systemic hacks, breaches and deployment of malware continue unabated.]

Government breaches – can you trust the US Government with your data?

Comparitech: “The US government suffered 443 data breaches since 2014, with 2018 being the worst year so far, according to a new study by Comparitech. Data breaches are often associated with the private sector—hackers break into databases owned by businesses to steal user data and other valuable information. But the government is also a frequent target of breaches, often compromising much more sensitive data. Comparitech analyzed the last four years of US government breaches. These are not only limited to database breaches, but also other electronic and even paper breaches. These can range from stolen laptops and hard drives to document mailing errors…” Here are the study’s key findings:

• Since 2014 there have been 443 data government/military breaches involving 168,962,628 records
• 2018 was the worst year for data breaches with 100 occurring which involved 81,505,426 records
• 2014 was also a high year for data breaches (90 in total) but these involved far fewer records—9,419,799
• Electronic breaches by far outweigh data breaches. However, in 2014, a third of all breaches were paper data breaches…”

: “The US government suffered 443 data breaches since 2014, with 2018 being the worst year so far, according to a new study by Comparitech. Data breaches are often associated with the private sector—hackers break into databases owned by businesses to steal user data and other valuable information. But the government is also a frequent target of breaches, often compromising much more sensitive data. Comparitech analyzed the last four years of US government breaches. These are not only limited to database breaches, but also other electronic and even paper breaches. These can range from stolen laptops and hard drives to document mailing errors…” Here are the study’s key findings:

• Since 2014 there have been 443 data government/military breaches involving 168,962,628 records
• 2018 was the worst year for data breaches with 100 occurring which involved 81,505,426 records
• 2014 was also a high year for data breaches (90 in total) but these involved far fewer records—9,419,799
• Electronic breaches by far outweigh data breaches. However, in 2014, a third of all breaches were paper data breaches…”