Unfortunately, identity theft continues to increase, and according to Identitytheft.org, the statistics are going to get worse in 2025. Some of the statistics cited by Identitytheft.org include:
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Identity theft will continue to rise in 2025. According to the Better Business Bureau of Missouri (BBB), it received over 16,000 identity theft complaints in the past three years. Scammers are “increasingly using advanced tactics such as artificial intelligence to exploit victims.”
The BBB notes that threat actors are taking over social media accounts to…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on April 22, 2025, that it has approved a settlement entered into a Final Order with accessiBe, which claimed its plug-in product, accessWidget, “can make any website compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).” The settlement includes the payment of $1 million and requires accessiBe to refrain from “making…
The Commercial Electronic Mail Act (CEMA) is a Washington State law that prohibits sending state residents a commercial email misrepresenting the sender’s identity. A commercial email promotes real property, goods, or services for sale or lease. A recent Washington Supreme Court opinion held that this prohibition includes the use of any false or misleading information…
Becker’s Hospital Review reports that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “has access to sensitive information in 19 HHS databases and systems,” according to a court filing obtained by Wired. HHS provided the information during the discovery process in the lawsuit filed by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations against…
I have been getting a lot of texts that are clearly scams, and those around me have confirmed an increase in spammy texts.
According to an FTC Consumer Protection Data Spotlight, individuals lost over $470 million resulting from text scams. The top text scams of 2024 that accounted for half of the $470 million…
In a big win for businesses, a California federal court just held that a “tester” plaintiff—someone who visits websites to initiate litigation—cannot bring a claim under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA). Rodriguez v. Autotrader.com, Inc., No. 2:24-cv-08735, 2025 WL 65409 (C.D. Cal. 1.8.25). Tester plaintiffs have started to focus on consumer protection…
SentinelOne researchers have discovered AkiraBot, which is used to target small- to medium-sized company websites with generative AI, and drafted outreach messages for website chats, comments, and contact forms. SentinelOne estimates that over 400,000 websites have been targeted, and the bot has successfully spammed “at least 80,000 websites since September 2024.”
The bot generated…
Video game developer Ubisoft, Inc. came out on top earlier this month in the Northern District of California when a judge dismissed, with prejudice, a class action claiming that the company’s use of third-party website pixels violated privacy laws. The judge concluded that the “issue of consent defeat[ed] all of Plaintiffs’ claims.” Lakes v. Ubisoft…
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on April 10, 2025, that it has settled alleged HIPAA Security Rule violations with Northeast Radiology for $350,000.
The investigation followed a breach report by Northeast Radiology to OCR in March 2020 after unauthorized individuals accessed radiology images stored in PAC servers. Northeast Radiology notified 298,532 patients of…
