So this week’s blog article takes a page from my very own “smart” home devices. Monday morning at about 3:42 a.m. our entire household woke up because every “smart” lightbulb in the house came on at the same time! It was a bit distressing and once we got up and shut off all the lights, … Continue Reading
This was a busy week for activity and discussions on the federal level regarding existing privacy laws – namely the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). But the real question is, could a federal privacy law actually happen in 2019? Cybersecurity issues and the possibility of a … Continue Reading
My fascination with Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues, and this week I found two new medical uses of AI that are pretty interesting. Digital Trends reported on two exciting developments: smart stethoscopes and smart toilet seats. In the first example, researchers at Johns Hopkins and the startup Sonavi Labs are developing an updated stethoscope, a piece … Continue Reading
On September 28, 2018, California passed Senate Bill No. 327, Chapter 886, which regulates the security of all internet of things (IoT) devices sold in California. Collectively, IoT broadly refers to all internet-enabled devices and includes everything from doorbells and lamps to cell phones and wearable devices. This bill, beginning on January 1, 2020, will … Continue Reading
For data security buffs like me, the recent McAfee® Labs Threats Report, December 2018 is, or should be, a top pick on the list. Well, maybe not for the holiday reading list, and we need to be careful not to bring up the results during holiday parties. I warn you that it is not an … Continue Reading
Sometimes I feel like I’m the Grinch at a party when I talk shop about the latest massive data breach or horrible hacker story that is in the news. We say things like, “It’s not if, but when” there will be another data breach. Well, this week was no different, as we saw news reports … Continue Reading
Some analysts have predicted that by 2020, there will be 20 billion Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices worldwide, which could grow to over 80 billion by 2025. Sales of IoT devices were $80 billion in 2017, and are predicted to grow to $1.4 trillion by 2021. With the exponential growth of IoT devices, experts … Continue Reading
What’s worse than standing in a huge line to get into the stadium to watch your favorite team? Standing in another huge line to get your favorite beer. CenturyLink Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks and Sounders FC, now offers the option of entering the stadium and purchasing food and beverages using biometrics fingerprint scanning … Continue Reading
The Australian Institute of Marine Science is using an IoT drifter manufactured by Myriota to collect oceanographic data in almost real time. The drifters connect to low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, so they are not using traditional mobile telephone networks, and avoid connectivity issues. The drifters monitor ocean conditions, including water temperatures, currents and barometric … Continue Reading
People don’t think of their cars as IoT devices. Our cars are increasingly more connected by Wi-Fi, what does that mean for data collection about the driver? Our cars are collecting much more data than you think. [view related posts here and here]. Cars can collect information related to where you’ve been, what you’re listening … Continue Reading
California lawmakers have taken the lead in trying to address privacy and security issues with Internet of Things (IoT) devices (which we have been writing about for years), by passing the country’s first IoT security bill, which is now headed to Governor Brown’s desk for signature by September 30. One of the issues addressed by … Continue Reading
While meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump was given a soccer ball, symbolic of the 2018 World Cup played in Russia. Bloomberg has reported that the soccer ball contained a chip, known as near-field communication (NFC) tag, which can transmit information to nearby cellphones, presumably including Trump’s as well. The chips can send … Continue Reading
Security researchers at Check Point discovered software vulnerabilities in LG IoT devices which allowed them to potentially gain control over LG refrigerators, ovens, dishwashers and a live feed from a robot vacuum cleaner. A vulnerability in the mobil app and cloud app allowed them to remotely gain access to LG IoT devices with just an … Continue Reading
We continue to try to alert our clients about the changing threat landscape in cybersecurity. We keep saying how the threats are becoming more and more sophisticated and more and more frequent, and that companies must acknowledge and address the threat as a high priority. Cisco publishes cybersecurity reports that outline the threats to businesses … Continue Reading
Everything connected to the Internet is hackable and at risk. But there are some things connected to the Internet that you just don’t think of as risks to an organization. That is, until now. Darktrace has issued its report Darktrace Global Threat Report 2017 that discusses nine unusual cyber threat scenarios that show, among other things, … Continue Reading
Researchers at Stanford University have released a study concluding that wearable fitness trackers provide inaccurate measurements when it comes to providing information to users on how many calories have been burned. The researchers evaluated seven wearable fitness trackers and how they measured heart rate and calories burned. Most of them measured heart rate pretty accurately, … Continue Reading
We often talk about how anything that is connected to the Internet is hackable and unsafe, and to be careful about how you buy and connect devices, products, appliances, home security systems and other wireless “things.” These are called the Internet of Things, or “IoT.” Alexa is an IoT “thing.” Cybersecurity literature constantly warns us … Continue Reading
IT professionals have long understood the importance of changing the default password for network connected hardware devices (printers, switches, wireless access points, etc.). In the world of the Internet Of Things it seems everything is connected to the internet, the locks to your house, the refrigerator, your car, the wireless router from the cable company, … Continue Reading
On June 16, 2016, the IRS announced that it will be making Form 990s available in machine-readable format through Amazon Web Services. While this information has always been available to the public, it was previously only accessible in PDF format, making searching or viewing data in bulk nearly impossible. The IRS announcement is in response … Continue Reading
Last week, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), through the cooperation of Fitbit, Inc. (Fitbit), released new guidance about wearable health tracker devices called “Toward Privacy Aware Research and Development in Wearable Health.” The most important takeaways of this report: “Internal research and development offers a unique window into data practices and policies at … Continue Reading
If you don’t wear contacts now, you may want to start thinking about wearing some if (and when) Sony patents and releases its smart contact lens. Sony has officially filed a patent for smart contact lenses which would allow the ‘user’ the ability to record and play back video. The patent references the ability of … Continue Reading
Bitstamp, the third largest Bitcoin exchange in the world and located in Luxembourg, announced on April 25, 2016, that it has obtained a payment institution license from Luxembourg, which means it is the first nationally licensed Bitcoin exchange in the world. The license was obtained through the European Union’s passport program, which gives reciprocity for … Continue Reading
One in five U.S. consumers are tracking their every movement, from their heart-rate, skin temperature, respiratory rate to their activity levels, food intake, weight, and sleep patterns. With this so-called ‘black box’ for the human body, this data collected through our wearable fitness devices has great potential to be used to bolster or dispute a … Continue Reading
At the PrivacyCon event held by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week in Washington, D.C., the FTC warned that several brands of baby monitors lack basic security features like complex passwords and data encryption, making the transmission of data through connected baby monitors more susceptible to hackers. While the FTC did not reveal the … Continue Reading
