Why this government data breach is worse than previous hacks
Culture
Government databases are hit by another massive hack and this time fingerprints are stolen.
I'm Bridget Carey, this is your C Net update.
[MUSIC]
It's easy to become desensitized to hacking reports and data leaks these days, but the latest government data breach isnt you're standard hack.
More than 22 million people have had their personal information stolen from cyber attacks on the US Government Office of Personal Management.
The stolen private info is tied to past, current, and prospective employees.
So if you applied for a federal government job in the past 15 years and a background check was done.
There's a good chance you're in this mess.
This time it went beyond stealing social security numbers.
It also included health and financial history, info on these employee's neighbors and spouses, along with more than a million people's fingerprints.
These are finger prints of people who needed government security clearances.
Losing fingerprints is a big deal.
Just like you see in the spy movies, people can make synthetic prints to trick a security scanner, and that means fingerprint scanners on now compromised.
This trick can even be done to fool to iPhone fingerprint scanner.
The head of the Office of Personnel Management Katherine Archileta has resigned in wake of the breech.
But hackers didn't directly attack her department's computer systems.
They got in using the credentials of another contractor with Access.
Hackers go after the outside people with the keys.
Remember the massive Target credit card breech?
Those hackers got in the computer systems through a company that had security access to building ventilation systems It's no different than the movie cliché of someone breaking in by disguising themselves as the repair man or the janitor, but it's being done on a cyber level.
Well, let's change topics to something later.
How about smart phones?
We could see the next big Samsung smart phone unveil Sooner than usual this year.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung wants to show off the upcoming Galaxy Note 5 in mid-August.
It used to be a September reveal, but it seems Samsung wants to woo us before the next iPhone comes out.
After all, iPhones are now as large as the Note And for a brief time last year, Apple was outscoring Samsung in market share and speaking of new products, there's some buzz that Apple may update some of its iPods, maybe as soon as Tuesday.
The report come from the French tech blog, iGeneration, which has some credible source leaks in the past.
There's also other evidence.
The newest version of iTunes has some code and graphics hidden inside, showing iPods in new colors.
Like a bold blue, hot pink, and beige.
And look closely at this discovered graphics.
See the date on the calendar?
Tuesday the 14th.
Could that be this Tuesday?
Coincidence.
That's it for this psych news update, but there's always more at cnet.com.
From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.
[MUSIC]
