Security News
The Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs has disabled its online passport application tracker, citing a "Data privacy issue" and hinting that information could have leaked. The Philippines requires citizens to use the site, which launched only a couple of months ago, to apply for a passport - walk-in applications are allowed only under exceptional circumstances.
The survey revealed that as data becomes more complex, and data rules and regulations expand and evolve, new challenges such as data privacy, security, and quality have emerged that threaten to hinder data initiatives. Further, the survey revealed that sensitive data use is on the rise, and the tasks associated with managing sensitive data - data cataloging, data discovery, and access control - are the most challenging.
Australia's Attorney-General has submitted the first draft of a new Online Privacy Bill that contains striking reforms over existing privacy laws. The goal of the new bill is to modernize the legislative context that underpins online data protection and security and make new laws tight enough to enforce data handling practices by Internet entities.
Microsoft has made available Privacy Management for Microsoft 365, a new AI-based solution to help enterprises manage data privacy risks and build a privacy resilient workplace, as well as automate the response to subject rights requests at scale.Privacy Management is built-into the Microsoft 365 compliance center and is currently available as an add-on to organizations with Office 365 A1/E1/A3/E3/A5/E5 and Microsoft 365 A3/E3/A5/E5 subscriptions.
Brave Browser has replaced Google with its own no-tracking privacy-centric Brave Search as the default search engine for new users in five regions. Historically, Brave used Google as its default search engine when searching from the address bar.
Brave, the privacy-conscious web browser, has announced plans to introduce additional privacy protections against 'bounce tracking,' a newer form of tracking that is not currently blocked by the browser. The new system, which Brave's team calls "Debouncing", addresses the bounce tracking method, which disregards users' privacy preferences such as the 'Do Not Track' setting and the blocking of third-party cookies.
If that makes it sound like the findings of the study point to a low level of consumer confidence in the protection of their online privacy, that would be accurate. The report itself highlights four key takeaways from the data, each of which it said "Demonstrates the growing importance of privacy to the individual and its implications on the businesses and governments that serve them."
Facebook on Wednesday announced it's open-sourcing Mariana Trench, an Android-focused static analysis platform the company uses to detect and prevent security and privacy bugs in applications created for the mobile operating system at scale. In a nutshell, the utility allows developers to frame rules for different data flows to scan the codebase for in order to unearth potential issues - say, intent redirection flaws that could result in the leak of sensitive data or injection vulnerabilities that would allow adversaries to insert arbitrary code - explicitly setting boundaries as to where user-supplied data entering the app is allowed to come from and flow into such as a database, file, web view, or a log.
With experiences increasingly online, consumers are less tolerant of frustration and will abandon a brand if they aren't able to balance convenience and privacy, according to a survey from Ping Identity. "With more options than ever before, businesses now need to integrate their security, privacy and user experience strategies to keep up with modern consumer expectations," said Richard Bird, chief customer information officer, Ping Identity.
If you have access to Apple's iOS 15 Developer Beta, learn how to use an important security feature called Mail Privacy Protection. If you're lucky enough to have access to the iOS 15 Developer Beta, you're probably already tinkering with all the new features, including Mail Privacy Protection.