Hi guys,
Last week, a security researcher discovered the official US government Target Terrorist Screening ‘no-fly’ list. This list contains the names of millions worldwide who are not allowed to fly on an aeroplane for whatever reason.
The hacker, 23-year-old Tillie Kottmann from the city of Lucerne in the Swiss canton of the same name, is also known by the pseudonym ‘maia arson crimew’ and has already published confidential data of US authorities and companies in numerous cases. Kottmann, reportedly behind the hack of over 150,000 surveillance cameras belonging to the US company Verkada in March 2021, is currently facing an arrest warrant in the US.
If you have five minutes, read this article on the DailyDot, where the whole story is laid out. It is shocking.
Here at Incognito, we work very hard to keep people safe from the advanced and persistent threats that are coming out daily; we face new malware, spyware, and ransomware. We find holes in the most secure systems in the world that hackers exploit, and we do our best to keep you aware with our tips, and we do our best to keep you safe with our technology.
But what we cannot keep you safe against is the stupidity of companies and their employees who do not securely store their information. They leave it on the Internet for anybody to find.
What does this mean if the US government can allow its SECRET database to be found by anyone with an Internet connection? Why are they not protecting these types of things? Where are the security processes and standards that any professional could apply to secure these things? They have ruined many people’s lives here.
As quoted from the Daily Dot:
“This country has a massive, bloated watchlisting system that can stigmatize people—including Americans—as known or suspected terrorists based on secret standards and secret evidence without a meaningful process to challenge government error and clear their names,” Shamsi said. “The categories of people watchlisted seem every expanding, never constricting … The consequences are significant and have real harms for people’s lives. There’s the obvious stigma and embarrassment and life hardships of being unable to fly in our modern age, to being singled out, to being searched. We’ve had mothers and fathers stigmatized and embarrassed in front of their children.”
Luckily we find out about most of these unsecured databases before hackers get to them, but it is just crazy that it happens in the first place. Stay tuned to our tips.
All the best,
Max