Things have been quite busy over the past few months, so my apologies in not getting a security newsletter update out earlier!

Bad ?

• Facebook data breach of 533 million records – But fear not, it’s all good news! Facebook doesn’t feel it’s necessary to tell users because well, there’s nothing you can do about it! Facebook’s logic is that if you were affected your info is already out there, nothing to be done and no need to worry! And this happened several years ago now, it’s only publicly available now. Fortunately the breach does not include passwords, but the data includes phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and email addresses.

  • You can check if you were part of the breach, or other data breaches here on HaveIBeenPowned

  • Something funny that came from this is that Mark Zuckerberg’s phone number was leaked as part of this data breach, and apparently this was used to show that he is using Signal!

• LinkedIn data breach of 500 million records – Unfortunately there has been another data breach for LinkedIn users revealing email addresses, phone numbers, workplace information, full names, account IDs, links to their social media accounts, and gender details.

• Last newsletter I was less than objective in encouraging dropping WhatsApp and using Signal due to Whats App sharing conversation information to target adds in Facebook. I was wanting to provide some other options besides just Signal, as there are many good options out there.

Neutral  ⚪

• Coded Bias is a documentary (available on Netflix) that talks about the biases that have been developed into software that we use

• The data that gets captured in the sorts of data breaches mentioned above ends up for sale on the “dark web”. Currently compromised credit cards are going for $25 USD, and hacked Facebook accounts for $65 USD. If you are curious you can see more details here.

Positive ?

• There was a fish tank thermometer hack that allowed hackers to gain access to a casino through the fish tank thermometer!

• Domino’s began autonomous food delivery via robots in Houston

• Something to think about for social media addiction and using your devices, rather than letting them use you: https://youtu.be/0VF5tXmjau4

Resources to dig deeper 

Here are some resources if you really want to learn more on privacy and security.

• Techlore: https://techlore.tech/

• Security Now: https://twit.tv/shows/security-now

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any requests for items to cover in the next newsletter!