By Cameron Abbott, Keely O’Dowd, Giles Whittaker and Harry Crawford
As promised in a previous blog post, K&L Gates have performed an in-depth analysis of the risks of relying on de-identification of data to protect privacy, in the wake of researchers successfully re-identifying de-identified medical data that was released by the Australian Department of Health in 2016.
Read the article on the K&L Gates HUB here.
By Cameron Abbott and Samantha Tyrrell
Facebook has always been confronted with privacy-related scrutiny, including being the respondent in the proceedings that ultimately brought down the EU-US privacy shield. On 28 January 2018, Facebook revealed its “privacy principles” to users for the first time. Via a series of educational videos and a ‘Privacy Check Up’ function, Facebook has shared the core principles it uses to guide its approach to privacy. Facebook will also roll out a new hub which will allow users to more easily control their privacy settings.
By Cameron Abbott and Allison Wallace
Sometimes you don’t need a “hack” to have a cybersecurity issue. The locations of several US military bases in the Middle East seem to have been inadvertently revealed through US soldiers’ use of fitness tracking devices, and the fitness tracking app Strava. Read More
By Cameron Abbott and Harry Crawford
A significant case for digital privacy is currently before the US Supreme Court, with the US Justice Department fighting it out against Microsoft in a bid to gain access to emails held on Microsoft’s servers in Dublin. The US Justice Department is seeking to use a search warrant to access the emails in Ireland in a drug trafficking case. If a precedent is set which allows the US government to access data stored on foreign soil, that could have a significant impact on privacy rights on a global scale.
By Cameron Abbott, Allison Wallace and Olivia Coburn
The personal details of almost 50,000 Australians have been published online by a third party government contractor, who is yet to be identified. And I guess you would feel a little shy about owning up to this one!
By Cameron Abbott, Rob Pulham and Olivia Coburn
A Belgian researcher has discovered a weakness in WPA-2, the security protocol used in the majority of routers and devices including computers, mobile phones and connected household appliances, to secure internet and wireless network connections.
The researcher, Mathy Vanhoef, has named the flaw KRACK, for Key Reinstallation Attack.
Any device that supports Wi-Fi is likely to be affected by KRACK, albeit devices will have different levels of vulnerability depending on their operating systems. Linux and Android are believed to be more susceptible than Windows and iOS, and devices running Android 6.0 are reportedly particularly vulnerable.
By Cameron Abbott and Olivia Coburn
Equifax has joined Yahoo on the podium for the award no one wants: suffering one of the largest data breaches in history.
Equifax, one of the three largest US credit reporting agencies, announced last week that it suffered a cybersecurity incident potentially impacting 143 million US consumers – a figure comprising of roughly 55 per cent of Americans aged 18 years or older. Some UK and Canadian residents are also affected.
By Cameron Abbott and Olivia Coburn
Global spending on information security products and services will reach $86.4 billion this year, according to US-based technology research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc.
This figure is an increase of 7 per cent over 2016, and is expected to grow to $93 billion in 2018.
By Cameron Abbott and Olivia Coburn
Charities are increasingly employing commercial approaches to funding, lobbying and fundraising to fuel their invaluable work. In doing so, charities need to be cautious of mishandling the donor’s personal information that they collect together with the donation.
Donors are frequently being asked to provide information such as home address, email address and their mobile phone number. In some instances charities will not accept money unless this personal information is also provided.
By Cameron Abbott and Olivia Coburn
On 1 August 2017, employees of a Wisconsin-based technology company enjoyed a “Chip Party” – but not the salty kind. 21 of Three Square Market’s 85 employees agreed to allow their employer to embed radio frequency identification chips in their bodies. We are familiar with the Internet of Things, is this the Internet of People?
Three Square Market (known as 32M) highlighted the convenience of microchipping their employees, reporting that they will be able to use the RFID chip to make purchases in the company break room, open doors, access copy machines and log in to their computers.
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