Legal
Wolf Haldenstein law firm says 3.5 million impacted by data breach
Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP (“Wolf Haldenstein”) reports it has suffered a data breach that exposed the personal information of nearly 3.5 million individuals to hackers. The incident took place on December 13, 2023, but the firm says data analysis and digital forensic complications severely delayed the completion of its investigation. Last Friday, […]
Allstate car insurer sued for tracking drivers without permission
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Allstate and its data subsidiary Arity for unlawfully collecting, using, and selling driving data from over 45 million Americans. The two companies are accused of paying millions of dollars to app developers to embed tracking code in widely used mobile apps to gather the location […]
Pastor who saw crypto project in his “dream” indicted for fraud
A pastor at a Pasco, Washington, church has been indicted on 26 counts of fraud for allegedly operating a cryptocurrency scam that defrauded investors of millions between 2021 and 2023. The US Department of Justice says the pastor, Francier Obando Pinillo, 51, used his position to recruit investors into a fraudulent cryptocurrency venture called “Solano Fi,” which […]
Telegram hands over data on thousands of users to US law enforcement
Telegram reveals that the communications platform has fulfilled 900 U.S. government requests, sharing the phone number or IP address information of 2,253 users with law enforcement. This number is a steep increase from previous years, with most requests processed after the platform’s policy shift on sharing user data, announced in September 2024. While Telegram has long been […]
Washington state sues T-Mobile over 2021 data breach security failures
Washington state has sued T-Mobile over failing to secure the sensitive personal information of over 2 million Washington residents in a 2021 data breach. The case dates back to August 2021, when T-Mobile admitted that attackers brute forced their way into its corporate network and gained access to the sensitive information of 79 million people nationwide. The data breach itself, […]
Apple offers $95 million in Siri privacy violation settlement
Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class action lawsuit in the U.S. alleging that its Siri assistant recorded private conversations and shared them with third parties. The proposed lawsuit alleges that the audio data was disclosed without users’ consent to a network of third-party marketers and advertisers. Users complained of being targeted on their […]
FTC orders Marriott and Starwood to implement strict data security
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ordered Marriott International and Starwood Hotels to define and implement a robust customer data security scheme following failures that led to massive data breaches. After acquiring Starwood in 2016 and failing to implement “reasonable data security,” Marriott International suffered three major data breaches impacting 344 million customers globally. Order for stronger […]
Ireland fines Meta $264 million over 2018 Facebook data breach
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined Meta €251 million ($263.6M) over General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) violations arising from a 2018 personal data breach impacting 29 million Facebook accounts. The breach was caused by the exploitation of user access tokens by unauthorized parties, exposing sensitive user data such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, and physical locations, […]
Operation PowerOFF shuts down 27 DDoS-for-hire platforms
Law enforcement agencies from 15 countries have taken 27 DDoS-for-hire services offline, also known as “booters” or “stressers,” arrested three administrators, and identified 300 customers of the platforms. The action is part of ‘Operation PowerOFF,’ an international initiative to combat cybercrime, specifically distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. DDoS-for-hire services are platforms that utilize botnets on compromised […]
FTC distributes $72 million in Fortnite refunds from Epic Games
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is distributing over $72 million in Epic Game Fortnite refunds for the company’s use of dark patterns to trick players into making unwanted purchases. This is part of the record-breaking $245 million settlement the agency reached with the game publisher in December 2022. The settlement addressed allegations that Epic Games used “dark […]