A Review of the Best News of the Week on Identity Management & Web Fraud
China introduces mandatory face scans for phone users (Yahoo News , Dec 01 2019)
China will require telecom operators to collect face scans when registering new phone users at offline outlets starting Sunday, according to the country’s information technology authority, as Beijing continues to tighten cyberspace controls.
Pressure mounts for federal privacy law with second bill (Naked Security – Sophos, Nov 29 2019)
Pressure is gathering for a federal privacy law in the US with the introduction of a second bill that would protect consumer data.
Twitter Promises Increased Transparency With New Privacy Center (SecurityWeek, Dec 03 2019)
Twitter this week announced the launch of a privacy center whose goal is to provide increased transparency on how the social platform handles user information.
Filter Out the Noise
Since I started this curated newsletter in June 2017, I’ve clipped ~12,000 articles and narrowed them down into the best 20 per day & best 15 per week. This is my favorite way to cut through all the security marketing and hype. If you’re enjoying it, tell a friend. If you hate it, tell an enemy.
Thanks! – Lucas Samaras
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Hackers Trick Venture Capital Firm Into Sending Them $1 Million (VICE, Dec 05 2019)
A Chinese VC firm and an Israeli startup had the money stolen right out from under their noses thanks to spoofed emails and bogus domains.
Ad fraud: Fake local news sites are rolling in the dough (Naked Security – Sophos, Dec 03 2019)
The fakery is funded by advertisers who are unwittingly paying fraudsters who pump up the page views on small “news” sites to eye-watering levels. They’re doing so by buying fake traffic from bots: evidenced by anomalies such as nearly all the traffic coming from mobile devices. That’s atypical, unless a site is specifically targeted at a mobile audience.
FTC: Fraudsters Go Low-Tech to Trick the Elderly (Infosecurity Magazine, Dec 04 2019)
Scam letters and requests for cash payments increasingly common
Steam players – beware of fake skins as phishers try to hijack accounts (Naked Security – Sophos, Dec 04 2019)
Phishing scammers have once again targeted users of the popular Steam gaming service, it was revealed this week.
Artificial Fingerprint Ring Could Combat Biometric Data Theft (Infosecurity Magazine, Dec 04 2019)
A cybersecurity company has teamed up with a 3D accessory designer to produce a ring that could tackle the issue of what to do if your biometric data is stolen. The attractive and wearable piece of jewelry features a synthetic fingerprint that can be used to unlock phones, make payments, or even access a home or office.
DHS May Require US Citizens Be Photographed at Airports (SecurityWeek, Dec 04 2019)
Federal officials are considering requiring that all travelers — including American citizens — be photographed as they enter or leave the country as part of an identification system using facial-recognition technology.