Plus more newsbytes of the week, including more TikTok security concerns and a major data breach affecting millions of online gamblers
In their haste to bring COVID-19 contact tracing apps to market, many developers around the world have skimped on security, giving hackers easy targets from which they can steal all kinds of sensitive information, such as the names of the sick, national ID numbers, location data, and more. Countries have been deploying the tracking apps in an effort to identify disease hotspots and limit the spread of the virus while they ease lockdown orders. Qatar, India, the U.K., and the Netherlands are just some of the nations who learned their tracking apps had security flaws only after they’d been put into use. The U.S. is just starting to use contact tracing apps, but instead of deploying one national app, each state must create their own. Working with low cybersecurity budgets, states are beginning to do just that but with mixed results. Politico reported that public debate centers on the question of who should have access to the collected information. The constant revelations of weak cybersecurity is only exacerbating the problem. Shortly after North Dakota released its Care19 contact tracing app, it was discovered that user location data was being shared with marketing service Foursquare. Members of Congress have started submitting bills focused on app legislation, covering data security and privacy, but this deeply divisive topic is still in its nascent stages on Capitol Hill.
Avast security evangelist Luis Corrons feels that new app laws are beside the point. “The solution is alr ..
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