Wireless service provider T-Mobile has agreed to move to a “modern zero trust” security architecture, take steps to segment its networks, and implement some basic cyber hygiene practices under terms of a data breach settlement with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). […]

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Chairwoman Nancy Mace, R-S.C., are looking for answers on Federal government and U.S. citizen exposure to a possible cyberattack against National Public Data. […]

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said this week he sent letters to 15 Federal agencies – along with the FBI and the White House – demanding information about their exposure to an AT&T data breach disclosed by the company last month that includes most wireless customer call and text records from May to October 2022. […]

The U.S. Air Force laid out a list of steps it is taking to better protect and regulate access to classified data in the wake of last summer’s “Discord” breach that exposed to the public hundreds of classified military and intelligence agency documents, according to a Dec. 11 report that details the service branch’s responses to the breach. […]

It’s time for businesses to start people-proofing their systems. According to Verizon’s 16th Annual Data Breach Investigations Report released today, 74 percent of all breaches include the human element through error, privilege misuse, social engineering, or use of stolen credentials. […]

The Department of Transportation (DoT) is investigating a data breach affecting administrative systems at the department, an agency spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk today. […]

The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) is responding to a ransomware attack and data breach that has compromised law enforcement sensitive information, a USMS spokesperson told MeriTalk today. […]

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is responding to a data breach at Healthcare Management Solutions, LLC (HMS) – a subcontractor to CMS – that may have exposed personally identifiable information of up to 254,000 Medicare beneficiaries. […]

A recent review by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) did not adequately protect sensitive data on an unencrypted device used during its Vehicle Face System pilot—a facial recognition technology pilot. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today that an unauthorized actor entered its Financial Services Center database and accessed the personal information of 46,000 veterans. […]

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is in the process of notifying small business applicants impacted by an exposure of personally identifiable information (PII) in connection with their its Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications. […]

The Federal defense agency responsible for secure communications of national leaders and military operations said Social Security numbers and other personal information may have been compromised in a 2019 data breach. […]

Synthetic identity theft has become the fastest growing type of financial crime in America and is often unreported and difficult to detect, according to a new Federal Reserve white paper. […]

In light of the increasing ubiquity of data breaches, Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report today recommending that Federal agencies should discontinue knowledge-based verification to strengthen their remote identity proofing processes and that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) should provide guidance in creating alternative identity proofing methods. […]

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officials confirmed that no more than 100,000 photos of travelers and license plates were compromised in a data breach CBP identified on May 31, according to The New York Times and Washington Post. […]

As the reality of cyber threats and data breaches becomes closer to normal life for private and public sector organizations, a Nominet report finds that while executives know cyber risks are high, they still lack resources and accountability for handling breaches and information security. […]

Cyber incidents and data breaches in 2018 were overwhelmingly driven by hopes for financial gain in private-sector and state-sponsored cyber-espionage in public-sector attacks in 2018, Verizon found in its Data Breach Investigations Report released last week. […]

Microsoft confirmed this week that its webmail services were victim to a data breach through the first three months of 2019. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that information on the efficacy of identity theft insurance coverage is limited in a report yesterday, adding that it is unnecessary to mandate Federal entities to offer certain levels of identity theft services. […]

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel warned Michiganders today that the information of 600,000 of the state’s citizens may have been compromised in a ransomware-caused data breach. […]

Several senators said today that high-profile private-sector data breaches like those disclosed by Equifax in 2017 and Marriott in 2018 serve to boost the urgency with which Congress should act to approve legislation that would implement the country’s first national private-sector cybersecurity regulations and procedures. […]

In what may qualify as the second largest data breach ever, Marriott announced today that up to 500 million guests at the company’s Starwood Group hotels have had their personal data stolen. […]

The General Services Administration’s Office of Inspector General said in a report issued Oct. 19 that it wants GSA’s IT Office (GSA IT) to provide a revised corrective action plan to improve the agency’s policies for responding to breaches of personally identifiable information (PII). […]

The Department of Health and Human Service’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported a data breach of its HealthCare.gov site, with the attacker accessing the files of about 75,000 people, the agency said in a statement released Friday. […]

Facebook said it informed users on Friday the company discovered attackers using a new technique to potentially take over user accounts–putting 50 million accounts at risk and forcing the company to take preventative action on 90 million accounts. […]

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) portal maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency accidentally released personal information to the public, including Social Security numbers. […]

Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]

Conventional wisdom is that it takes a fairly long time to detect a cybersecurity breach. Typically, most research suggests, it takes two to three months, possibly longer. That may not be the case anymore, though, according to a recent report. […]

Government employees are playing Russian roulette every time they open their inbox. […]