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Treasury intervention could give more help to data breach victims

Aug 2, 2018
This week, the Treasury Department issued recommendations to protect consumers from big data breaches, like the ones we’ve seen at Equifax and Target. Among the Treasury Department’s recommendations: creating a national standard for handling the aftermath of data breaches. Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 
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EU online privacy rules are about to get more stringent

Apr 10, 2018
Tech businesses and consumers alike today scrutinized what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said to Congress and how lawmakers reacted to it. The big question is whether tougher regulation for social media platforms will follow. The threat is already materializing on the other side of the Atlantic. A new data protection law comes into force in […]

Facebook could use some friends

Mar 20, 2018
Facebook’s leaders are being called on to explain themselves before officials here and in Europe. The Federal Trade Commission is examining whether Cambridge Analytica, the company that improperly siphoned the data of millions of Facebook users to create political profiles, violated a consent agreement. Now, the fact your information is for sale on the internet […]

Shouldn’t a company have to tell you when it’s been hacked?

Mar 1, 2018
Here are three reasons why there should be breach-notification law.
In this photo illustration, a virtual map of the internet is projected onto a woman in London.
Leon Neal/Getty Images

Why companies like Uber have an incentive to cover up data breaches

Nov 22, 2017
News has broken that last year, hackers downloaded the personal information of 57 million Uber riders and drivers from a third-party server. In response, the ride-hailing company paid those attackers $100,000 to delete their copy of the data, and then reportedly tracked them down to get them to sign non-disclosure agreements to keep the breach […]

Can Congress make consumer data safer?

Oct 17, 2017
The Senate Banking committee meets today for another hearing about the Equifax data breach. With the major credit reporting agencies woven deeply into the fabric of our financial system, what can Congress actually do here? Click the above audio player to hear the full story.

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Complicated passwords aren't going to solve the computer security problem

Oct 12, 2017
A lot of the rules we follow when creating passwords actually makes them worse.
Leon Neal/Getty Images

SEC reveals 2016 hack that breached its filing system

Sep 21, 2017
It may have provided the basis for some illegal trading.
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We might not see the effects of the Equifax breach for years

Sep 20, 2017
"Next year, I might be affected. Twenty years from now, my kids might be affected. We don't know."
With so many areas of modern life requiring identity verification, online security remains a constant concern.
Leon Neal/Getty Images