Last month, US Attorney General William Barr resurrected a government appeal to technology companies: Provide law enforcement with an infallible, “secure” method to access, unscramble, and read encrypted data stored on devices and sent across secure messaging services. Barr asked, in more accurate, yet unspoken terms, for technology companies to develop encryption backdoors to their own … [Read more...]
August 9, 2019
July 29, 2019
July 25, 2019
Changing California’s privacy law: A snapshot at the support and opposition
Last week, the corporate-backed, legislative battle against California privacy met a blockade, as one Senate committee voted down and negotiated changes to several bills that, as originally written, could have weakened the state’s data privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act. Though the bills’ authors have raked in thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from companies … [Read more...]
June 12, 2019
Apple iOS 13 will better protect user privacy, but more could be done
Last week, Apple introduced several new privacy features to its latest mobile operating system, iOS 13. The Internet, predictably, expressed doubt, questioning Apple’s oversized influence, its exclusive pricing model that puts privacy out of reach for anyone who can’t drop hundreds of dollars on a mobile phone, and its continued, near-dictatorial control of the App store, which can, at a moment’s … [Read more...]
June 5, 2019
Maine inches closer to shutting down ISP pay-for-privacy schemes
Maine residents are one step closer to being protected from the unapproved use, sharing, and sale of their data by Internet service providers (ISPs). A new state bill, already approved by the state House of Representatives and Senate, awaits the governor’s signature. If signed, the bill would provide some of the strongest data privacy protections in the United States, putting a latch on … [Read more...]
June 3, 2019
A week in security (May 27 – June 2)
Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took readers through a deep dive—way down the rabbit hole—into the novel malware called “Hidden Bee.” We also looked at the potential impact of a government agency’s privacy framework, and delivered to readers everything they needed to know about ATM attacks and fraud. Lastly, amidst continuing news about the City of Baltimore suffering a ransomware attack, we … [Read more...]
May 29, 2019
NIST’s privacy framework lets privacy tell its own story
Online privacy remains unsolved. Congress prods at it, some companies fumble with it (while a small handful excel), and the public demands it. But one government agency is trying to bring everyone together to fix it. As the Senate sits on no fewer than four data privacy bills that their own members wrote—with no plans to vote on any—and as the world’s largest social media company braces for an … [Read more...]
May 13, 2019
A week in security (May 6 – 12)
Last week on Labs, we discussed what to do when you discover a data breach, how 5G could impact cybersecurity strategy, the top six takeaways for user privacy, vulnerabilities in financial mobile apps that put consumers and businesses at risk, and in our series about vital infrastructure, we highlighted threats that target financial institutions, fintech, and cryptocurrencies. Other … [Read more...]
May 8, 2019
The top six takeaways for user privacy
Last week, Malwarebytes Labs began closing out our data privacy and cybersecurity law blog series, a two-month long exploration spanning five continents, 50 states, just as many data breach notification laws, three non-universal definitions of personal information and personal data, five pending US data protection laws, and one hypothetical startup’s efforts to just make sense of it all. We … [Read more...]
April 2, 2019
