Top stories.
- Slovakia finds Russian backdoors on traffic speed cameras.
- Canada's Hospital for Sick Children discloses breach.
- TikTok will pay $400 million to settle children's privacy case.
Slovakia finds Russian backdoors on traffic speed cameras.
Slovakia's national security service, the NBU, found Russian backdoors on hundreds of newly installed speed cameras, Tom's Hardware reports. The NERO R-ONE cameras are believed to be rebranded CORDON PRO.M traffic cameras purchased through a Cyprus-based shell company. CORDON PRO.M cameras are manufactured by a Russian company called "Semicon." The NBU says the cameras contain a hardcoded list of Russian phone numbers that can open a backdoor connection via an SMS message.
The Slovak Ministry of the Interior has deactivated the cameras and is bringing in an independent auditor to verify the NBU's findings. Risky Business notes that similar issues may affect cameras used in Croatia and other Eastern European countries.
Canada's Hospital for Sick Children discloses breach.
Canada's largest pediatric center, the Toronto-based Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), has disclosed a data breach affecting personal information belonging to current and former employees, the Record reports. The hospital stated, "The incident temporarily affected the external Careers website, which has since been safely restored, and is linked to a vulnerability in a third-party software application used by SickKids and other organizations. Clinical systems and patient information were not affected and patient care has continued as usual."
The breach may have exposed data on "current and former SickKids, Boomerang and SickKids Foundation employees as well as SickKids job applicants." The organization is notifying impacted individuals directly.
TikTok will pay $400 million to settle children's privacy case.
TikTok has reached a $400 million settlement with the US Justice Department to resolve alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Wall Street Journal reports. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against the company in 2024, accusing TikTok of knowingly permitting children to create regular TikTok accounts and of retaining children's email addresses and other personal information. Neither TikTok nor its parent company ByteDance has commented on the settlement, but TikTok previously said it disagreed with the allegations.
The Justice Department said in a press release, "Since the Justice Department filed its complaint in 2024, TikTok has undergone significant changes to its ownership, management, compliance functions, and privacy practices. The company has implemented extensive measures designed to strengthen safeguards for younger users, improve age-related controls, and enhance parental oversight. Those developments have materially advanced the public interests underlying the Department’s litigation and have strengthened protections for millions of American families."
