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#hack

16 posts16 participants0 posts today

lifehacker.com/tech/hackers-st

A data breach at Laboratory Services Cooperative resulted in the theft of sensitive health records from over 1.6 million Planned Parenthood patients, including minors under 18, across more than 30 states.

The compromised information includes personal, medical, insurance, and billing details, as well as identifiers and LSC employee data.

Lifehacker · Hackers Stole Health Records From 1.6 Million Planned Parenthood PatientsLaboratory Services Cooperative (LSC), which provides lab testing services to reproductive health clinics across the U.S., is notifying individuals who may have been affected by a security incident that took place in October 2024.
Replied to C.

Then, a couple of months later, I get spam from a seller trying to get me to buy knockoff designer handbags, or a Nigerian prince trying to secret his fortune away, or something else odious.

But look -- the email was sent to the address "crappytire@example.net"!

Now I know, with absolute certainty, that this spammer got my address, directly or indirectly, from Crappy Tire. Maybe they sold their mailing list far and wide. Maybe their systems were hacked and every customer's email was exfiltrated.

I can now take action. If I think they sold my address, I can write a nastygram referencing their privacy policy or Canada's PIPEDA act, or Europe's GDPR, or whatever. If I think my address was stolen from their systems, I can report the security incident to them, or publicize it so others know it may have happened to them.

And most importantly, I can disable that email address. Just refuse all mail sent to it. It's no longer of use to spammers or crooks. If I ever deal with Crappy Tire again, I give them a new unique address.

Anyway, that's a lot of backstory. I use this technique extensively. I have caught many, many companies selling/renting their mailing lists in violation of their own policies. I have caught many others that have been hacked, and they didn't even know it.

So what's the thing that happens to me occasionally regarding this?

2/x

Favorite thing lately is finding an article I wish were in podcast form, saving the text to a .txt file, then having TTS Util use RH Voice to convert the file into an audio reading, and listen to my own little robotic FOSS nanny read me the stories I want to hear in my headphones as I do yardwork.