Top infosec trends in the social media spotlight this week

California Representative Katie Porter grilled Equifax CEO Mark Begor during a House Committee on Financial Services hearing on Tuesday:



In a video extract that’s been shared thousands of times on Twitter this week, Congresswoman Porter’s questions drew out the apparent inconsistencies between Begor’s thoughts on data protection and the line that was being pushed by the credit rating agency’s lawyers:

“My question for you is whether you would be willing to share today your Social Security [number], your birth date, and your address at this public hearing?”

“I would be a bit uncomfortable doing that, Congresswoman… I’d prefer not to.”

“Could I ask you why you are unwilling?”

“Well, it’s sensitive information. It’s sensitive information that I like to protect, and I think consumers should protect theirs.”

“If that sensitive information were provided at this public hearing, what are you concerned about could happen?”

“I think, like every American, Congresswoman, I would be concerned about identity theft.”

“My question then is, if you agree that exposing this kind of information – information like you have in your credit reports – creates harm, therefore you are unwilling to share it, why are your lawyers arguing in federal court that there was no injury and no harm created by your data breach?”

The entire hearing is available to view online. (Representative Porter’s questions start at the 3hr 8mins mark).


RELATED Equifax a year on: Little has changed – at least for the billion-dollar company


In other news, three senators have requested that Google CEO Sundar Pichai provides more details following the recent revelations that a “hidden” microphone had been built into the company’s Nest Secure devices.

An excerpt from the letter (PDF) reads:

It is critically important that companies like Google be completely transparent with consumers, and provide full disclosure of all technical specifications of their products at the point of sale… Google’s failure to disclose a microphone within its Nest Secure product raises serious questions about its commitment to consumer transparency and disclosure.


And finally, one Reddit user was left more than a little red-faced this week, as their complaints against encrypted email provider ProtonMail backfired.

In a now-deleted post, the user claimed their email account was “blocked by ProtonMail without specifying the reason”.

“I’m sure that I didn’t do anything against the law and didn’t do [spam] mailings,” the user wrote. “I have cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, bank accounts, [and] trading services.”

In response to the claims, ProtonMail penned a 400-word rebuttal, providing information the user had neglected to include:

Yikes.