The week in security: During Privacy Awareness Week, warnings that we are neither private nor aware

It’s not that consumers don’t ever want to share personal information – but, as the online world commemorated Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) 2018, the point was made that they only want to do so with companies they trust.

Businesses that successfully build that trust are likely to see considerable rewards when customers recommend and frequent them more often – which raises questions about why so few businesses are ready for the new GDPR privacy protections that come into effect this week.

Of course, privacy isn’t only a corporate obligation: consumers should also be involved in protecting their data by using caution and best practices – although new figures suggested that most end-users simply aren’t giving that requirement enough attention during PAW, or throughout the rest of the year either.

Facebook continued clamping down on apps that abuse consumer trust, suspending 200 apps on reports that 3 million users had been affected by another dodgy personality quiz app.

Yet it wasn’t only about personality tests: reports suggested North Korean hackers were using fake Facebook accounts to lead defectors to malware-laden Facebook profiles and Android apps. There were new warnings from Adobe about a critical Acrobat PDF flaw that allows Windows 7 to be hacked, while Cisco’s virtual network interface also suffered severe bugs.

Tags ciscoPrivacy Awareness Week (PAW)

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