Millions of Americans’ location data compromised in apparent hack

[Craig]

A NEW HACK AND DATA BREACH BY RUSSIAN CYBERCRIMINALS IS THREATENING THE PRIVATE INFORMATION OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD.

GRAVY ANALYTICS – ONE OF THE LARGEST COMPANIES THAT TRACKS AMERICANS’ DATA, IN PARTICULAR, THROUGH SMARTPHONE LOCATION DATA COLLECTED FROM WIDELY USED MOBILE APPS LIKE GAMES AND DATING APPS – WAS HACKED LAST WEEK.

THE FULL SCALE OF THE BREACH IS NOT YET KNOWN – BUT AN ALLEGED HACKER POSTED A GIGABYTE’S WORTH OF DATA ON A RUSSIAN LANGUAGE CYBERCRIME FORUM LAST WEEK… AND THREATENED TO SHARE TERABYTES MORE UNLESS GRAVY ANALYTICS PAID A RANSOM.

THE AMOUNT OF THE RANSOM WAS NOT SPECIFIED AND THE POST HAS SINCE BEEN REMOVED – RAISING SUSPICION AMONG ANALYSTS THAT GRAVY COMPLIED.

CYBERSECURITY EXPERTS WHO DOWNLOADED THE INFORMATION BEFORE IT WAS REMOVED AND ANALYZED IT HAVE SAID THE HACK APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN AUTHENTIC.

GRAVY’S PARENT COMPANY UNACAST – WHICH IS HAS AN OFFICE IN NORWAY – HAS NOT PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGED THE BREACH IN AMERICA… BUT NORWEGIAN BROADCASTER N-R-K REPORTED SATURDAY IT HAD DISCLOSED THE BREACH WITH NORWAY’S DATA PROTECTION AUTHORITIES AS REQUIRED UNDER THE COUNTRY’S LAW.

LAST MONTH – THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ACCUSED GRAVY ANALYTICS AND ITS SUBSIDIARY, VENNTEL, OF ILLEGALLY COLLECTING AND SELLING AMERICANS’ LOCATION DATA

THE F-T-C SAID SOME OF THE PEOPLE GRAVY TRACKED WERE MONITORED GOING INTO SENSITIVE LOCATIONS – LIKE GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS, HEALTH CLINICS AND PLACES OF WORSHIP.

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