IT Security & Privacy

Users of the social media site X experienced outages on Monday morning, continuing into the afternoon. They encountered issues with logging in, viewing posts and profiles, and loading images. According to Downdetector, an outage tracking site, reports of disruptions began to emerge in the early morning EST. Three additional spikes in outages were recorded throughout the day. The number of reports started to decline steadily around 2:30 p.m. ET, and the site largely returned to normal functionality.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit recently against National General and its parent company, Allstate Insurance, over a string of data breaches that exposed the personal information of over 165,000 New Yorkers. The lawsuit paints a troubling picture of how weak cybersecurity practices allowed hackers to access sensitive information—and not once, but twice—due to a series of preventable oversights.

Every year, Europe’s cybersecurity landscape grows more complex. With digital infrastructures evolving, cyber threats becoming more sophisticated, and the stakes higher than ever, it’s clear that certain sectors are facing serious challenges when it comes to cyber resilience. ENISA’s 2024 NIS360 report offers a deep dive into the cybersecurity maturity and criticality of sectors that are essential to Europe’s economic and social fabric—and the results are both encouraging and concerning.

In a move that underscores South Korea's commitment to data protection, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) has cracked down on two companies for major security oversights that put users’ personal data at risk. This recent decision, made at the PIPC’s fourth plenary meeting of the year, should serve as a wake-up call to businesses that think data security is an afterthought.

In a move that feels more like a privacy rollercoaster than a tech update, Apple has pulled its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) service from the United Kingdom. If you’re scratching your head wondering why this matters, ADP is a service that provides end-to-end encryption for iCloud data. That means your photos, notes, and other personal files are only accessible by you—unless, of course, someone gets a backdoor key. And that's exactly what the UK government has been asking for.

DeepSeek, the China-based AI chatbot service, is currently navigating a tricky regulatory landscape as privacy concerns grow across the globe. After being hit with privacy scrutiny in South Korea and facing an enforcement action in Italy over data protection practices, DeepSeek is working to address key concerns to avoid further disruptions to its operations.

Cybersecurity is not a new concept for modern organizations. Scheduled password changes, two-factor authentication, and mandatory training sessions are standard practices in most office environments. As computers have become the primary tool for business operations, the data they generate has become one of the most valuable assets across industries.