Okta, an authentication service used widely across the globe, is investigating a data breach Tuesday morning after hackers posted screenshots claiming to show the company’s internal systems. Any hack impacting Okta could have rippling ramifications for the other companies and organizations that rely on Okta’s authentication services to access their own systems. As listed on Okta’s website, JetBlue, Grubhub, T-Mobile, Peloton and Fidelity are among the companies that use Okta services. 

Okta CEO Todd McKinnon has since confirmed that the screenshots shared online were connected to the data breach attempt in late January, which the company said was contained. Okta said it found no evidence of malicious activity.

Okta is the latest company to investigate such an incident, but it’s certainly not the only one. Earlier this month, chipmaker Nvidia said that a cyberattacker stole and leaked employee credentials and company proprietary information. Before that, 2021 saw the most data breaches ever recorded with T-Mobile, Facebook, LinkedIn and Robinhood, among others, reporting breaches. 

Read more: The Worst Data Leaks, Breaches, Scrapes and Security Snafus in the Last Decade

With cyber threat actors targeting big corporations, software companies and even apps on your phone, your personal data could be at risk. If your private information has been compromised, you often won’t learn about it until the company you’ve trusted notifies you about a data breach. By that time your birthday, Social Security number, credit card number or health records will have already been exposed or stolen. 

Any stolen information that leads data thieves to your identity can let hackers do everything from making purchases and opening up credit accounts in your name, to filing for your tax refunds and making medical claims posing as you. Billions of these hacked login credentials are available on the dark web, neatly packaged for hackers to easily download for free.

You can’t stop sites from getting hacked, but you can take steps to check if your information is compromised and limit the damage done from a breach. First, if you use a password manager that creates unique passwords, you can ensure that if one site gets breached, your stolen password won’t give hackers access to your accounts on other sites. A good password manager can also help you administer all your login information, making it easy to create and use unique passwords. 

Next, once you find out a company or service with your credentials have been hacked, it’s good practice to change that password, whether you are notified your information was exposed in the data breach or not. You don’t want to wait days to act while the company works to uncover the extent of the hack. 

After a cyberattack, monitoring tools can alert you to which of your stolen credentials are out on the dark web, giving you a running start at limiting the damage the thieves can do. Here’s how to use two free monitoring tools — Google’s Password Checkup and Mozilla’s Firefox Monitor — to see which of your email addresses and passwords are compromised so you can take action.

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How to use Google’s Password Checkup 

As part of its password manager service, Google offers the free Password Checkup tool, which monitors usernames and passwords you use to sign in to sites outside of Google’s domain and notifies you if those login credentials have been exposed. (You may remember Password Checkup when it was a Chrome extension you had to add separately to Google’s browser. This is the same tool folded into Google’s password manager.)

1. If you use Google’s password service to keep track of your login credentials in Chrome or Android, head to Google’s password manager site and tap Go to Check passwords.

2. Tap Check Passwords and verify it’s you.

3. Enter the password for your Google account.

4. After thinking for a bit, Google will display any issues it’s found, including compromised, reused and weak passwords.

5. Next to each reused or weak password is a Change password button you can tap to pick a more secure one.

How to use Mozilla’s Firefox Monitor 

Mozilla’s free Firefox Monitor service helps you track which of your email addresses have been part of known data breaches. 

1. To start, head to the Firefox Monitor page.

2. Enter an email address and tap Check for Breaches. If the email was part of a known breach since 2007, Monitor will show you which hack it was part of and what else may have been exposed.

3. Below a breach, tap More about this breach to see what was stolen and what steps Mozilla recommends, such as updating your password.

You can also sign up to have Monitor notify you if your email is involved in a future data breach. Monitor scans your email address against those found data breaches and alerts you if you were involved. 

1. Near the bottom of the Firefox Monitor page, tap the Sign up for Alerts button.

2. If you need to, create a Firefox account.

3. Tap Sign in to see a breach summary for your email. 

4. At the bottom of the page, you can add additional email addresses to monitor. Mozilla will then send you an email at each address you add with a subject line “Firefox Monitor found your info in these breaches” when it finds that email address involved in a breach, along with instructions about what to do about following the breach.

How else to watch for fraud

Besides using the tools from Mozilla and Google, you can take a few additional steps to watch for fraud.

View your digital footprint. Bitdefender provides a dashboard with its Digital Identity Protection subscription that shows where your personal information has appeared online. It also pinpoints data breaches where your info has been leaked in the past, notifies you when your personal info appears in breaches going forward and provides recommended steps to secure your data. It also tells you whether your info is on the dark web and lets you know if someone appears to be impersonating you on social media.

Monitor your credit reports. To help you spot identity theft early, you can request one free credit report a year from each of the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — to check for unfamiliar activity, such as a new account you didn’t open. (Note that Equifax was itself part of a massive data breach.) You should also check your credit card and bank statements for unexpected charges and payments. Unexpected charges can be a sign that someone has access to your account.

Sign up for a credit monitoring service. To take a more active hand in watching for fraud, sign up with a credit monitoring service that constantly monitors your credit report on major credit bureaus and alerts when it detects unusual activity. With a monitoring service, you can set fraud alerts that notify you if someone is trying to use your identity to create credit. A credit reporting service like LifeLock can cost $9 to $26 a month — or you could use a free service like the one from Credit Karma that will watch for credit fraud but not ID fraud, such as someone trying to use your Social Security number.

For more on how to keep your data secure, see our guides on how to protect your phone’s privacy, the best VPN services of 2022 and why you should never trust a free VPN.

The post A Data Breach Can Compromise Your Information. Here’s How to Safeguard It first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

Robinhood Markets, the company behind the wildly popular investing app, on Wednesday priced its initial public offering at $38 a share, at the bottom of its expected range. The IPO — one of the most anticipated stock market listings of the year — values the company at about $32 billion.

Robinhood sold 55 million shares at low end of its expected $38 to $42 range. The company also made the unusual move of selling some of its IPO shares to users of its app.

It will make its trading debut Thursday on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol HOOD.

The app allows users to make commission-free trades on stocks, options and cryptocurrencies, making it especially popular among young people. But the IPO comes as scrutiny over the app continues.

The app was at was at the center of the GameStop saga that captivated financial markets in early February as shares of the video game retailer, cinema chain AMC and BlackBerry surged wildly and crashed, attracting the attention of Congress.

Robinhood made it easier for new investors to open trading accounts by offering no-commission trades and more forgiving loan terms. But it also drew users’ ire when it halted GameStop stock purchasing on Jan. 28, accusing the company of market manipulation just as prices began to fall.

Last month, Robinhood agreed to pay about $70 million after financial regulators accused the company of showing false and misleading information to customers.

Robinhood has also had to grapple with publicity surrounding Alex Kearns, a 20-year-old college student who killed himself last June after he believed he had racked up roughly $730,000 in trading losses on the app. The distress caused by the apparent loss and automated responses from Robinhood prompted Kearns to take his life, the lawsuit says.

Robinhood publicly filed for its IPO earlier this month, revealing that it was profitable last year, with a net income of $7.45 million on net revenue of $959 million. Robinhood also said it has about 22.5 million funded accounts on its platform as of June 30.

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Popular investing app Robinhood on Thursday publicly filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for its initial public offering. In its S-1 filing with the SEC, the company revealed that it has about 18 million funded accounts on its platform. Robinhood was also profitable last year, generating net income of $7.45 million on net revenue of $959 million in 2020, according to the filing.

“By untethering investing from the desktop computer, we’ve seen new categories of people, including gig economy workers, first responders, construction workers, and many more, discovering Robinhood and becoming investors,” wrote company co-founders Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt in a letter for future shareholders. “We believe democratizing finance for all is a one-way door, and these forces of change are more likely to accelerate than reverse.”

See also

• Robinhood’s no-fee model has real costs: ‘That is what scares me’
• The best budget app for 2021

Earlier this week, Robinhood agreed to pay about $70 million in fines and restitution after financial regulators accused the company of showing false and misleading information to customers. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority also said the app suffered a number of outages from 2018 through 2021 that caused customer losses, most prominently during the GameStop stock surge. The investing app also became the target of lawmakers, leading to a congressional hearing and investigations about Robinhood’s decisions.

In its filing, Robinhood said it will reserve between 20% and 35% of its IPO shares for its customers, most of whom are retail investors. The company also highlighted cryptocurrency trading on its platforming, noting that the “growing interest and adoption of cryptocurrency will drive increased customer interest in our platform.”

The company plans to trade under the symbol HOOD on the Nasdaq. 

The price range and number of shares to be offered haven’t yet been determined. Robinhood listed the size of its offering at $100 million as a placeholder, but that amount will change once it sets terms for the share sale, according to Bloomberg. 

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Remember the GameStop stock trading frenzy from earlier this year? One of the key players in that saga was the stock trading app Robinhood, and that notoriety earned Robinhood’s CEO a moment on the hot seat in a congressional hearing. At issue was how the app works — and specifically, whether its business model has the best interests of its users in mind.

As Robinhood edges closer to its own debut on the stock market, the scrutiny continues. CNET’s Rich Nieva took an in-depth look at the company, the app and the common concern that Robinhood users aren’t quite clear about what’s going on or what they’re really getting themselves into.

That’s just one of the in-depth features and thought-provoking commentaries that appeared on CNET this week. So here you go. These are the stories you don’t want to miss:

Robinhood’s no-fee model has real costs: ‘That is what scares me’

As the trading app inches closer to its IPO, concerns surface again over how the service could harm consumers.

Sony ditches DSLRs, moving the camera industry beyond film-era designs

Commentary: The future of higher-end photography is mirrorless.

I swapped out my gas grill for a wood pellet grill, and this is what happened

Thinking about buying a wood-fired smart grill with Wi-Fi? Here are some things to consider based on my experience switching from a gas grill.

Mark Zuckerberg explains where VR goes next

Exclusive: Facebook’s CEO talks about what the next headset could bring, how fitness plays into the picture and whether there will be kid accounts for VR anytime soon.

Homework gap: The digital divide crisis that’s leaving millions of kids behind

US schools are going back to in-person learning, but the so-called homework gap will persist.

Facebook’s oversight board made the right call on Trump. Now it’s Zuckerberg’s turn

Commentary: The social media company’s inconsistent approach to its policies created an untenable situation. The oversight board is pushing for a fix.

Disney’s real-life lightsaber looks incredible. Here’s how it could work

The realistic Star Wars weapon will be part of Disney’s new Galactic Starcruiser hotel at Disney World opening in 2022.

Airlines rush to put parked airplanes back in the sky

As the COVID-19 travel slump ends, the airline with the world’s largest fleet is preparing its aircraft to carry passengers again. It can take 1,000 hours of work per plane.

Yahoo Answers is dead, but the internet never forgets

What Yahoo Answers was supposed to be, what it became and what remains.

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The post 9 great reads from CNET this week first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

The family of a 20-year-old man filed a lawsuit against the investment Robinhood on Monday, saying its popular investment app was responsible for the student’s suicide. 

Alex Kearns, who was studying at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, killed himself last June after he believed he had racked up roughly $730,000 in trading losses on the app. The distress caused by the apparent loss and automated responses from Robinhood prompted Kearns to take his life, the lawsuit says. The family is suing for wrongful death, negligent infliction of emotional distress and unfair business practices. 

“This case centers on Robinhood’s aggressive tactics and strategy to lure inexperienced and unsophisticated investors, including Alex, to take big risks with the lure of tantalizing profits,” read the complaint, filed Monday in California state court. “Robinhood built out its trading platform to look much like a videogame to attract young users and minimize the appearance of real-world risk.”

The lawsuit comes amid a swirl of controversy involving Robinhood, which was at the center of the bizarre GameStop saga that captivated financial markets earlier this month as shares of the video game retailer, cinema chain AMC and BlackBerry surged wildly and crashed. The fee-free service, which came under fire for limiting trades in some of those shares during the volatile market, had previously been accused of downplaying the risks of stock trading and presenting complex financial instruments like a game in its effort to draw in young people and new investors. 

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is expected to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Feb. 18.

When reached for comment, Robinhood didn’t directly address the lawsuit but said it’s improved its customer service, offering live voice support and a process for escalating customer requests. The company has also added more guidance and requirements for those seeking to trade options, a form of more complex financial instruments. 

The lawsuit against Robinhood was earlier reported by CBS This Morning Monday. 

On June 11, Kearns purchased multiple stock options via the Robinhood app that resulted in what appeared to be a negative balance of $730,000. Kearns tried contacting Robinhood customers service via the app but received only automated responses. The day after his suicide, an email from the company said his trades had been resolved and he didn’t owe any money. 

“How was a 20 year old with no income able to get assigned almost a million dollars worth of leverage?” Kearn’s suicide note read. “The puts I bought/sold should have canceled out, too, but I also have no clue what I was doing now in hindsight. There was no intention to take this much risk. “

The post Robinhood sued for wrongful death after young trader’s suicide first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

Popular stock-trading app Robinhood went down Monday amid a stock market drop that fell so rapidly due to coronavirus fears and falling oil prices that trading was temporarily halted. A similar outage happened March 2, although for a much longer period of time. 

The company said via Twitter it has “partially restored” services after trading was stopped Monday morning. The Robinhood status page showed an issue appeared at 6:51 a.m. PT and a fix was being worked on at 7:30 a.m.

Robinhood updated its status page at 10:25 a.m. PT, saying trading of new orders, with the exception of fractional equities, is functional. The app gave the all clear around 3:30 p.m. PT, saying Robinhood is “back up and running again” and that trading has been restored. 

A Robinhood spokesperson says the interruption was not related to last week’s outage.

“Our platform is now fully operational and we’re working hard to improve our service during these historic and volatile market conditions,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement Monday. “We know this interruption was frustrating for our customers – especially after last week and on a day that trading was halted market-wide.” 

Stocks plunged so badly Monday morning, it triggered a failsafe that halts trading for 15 minutes when there’s a rapid decline of 7% of the S&P 500.  

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Robinhood warned its customers in an email Wednesday that their passwords may have been stored in plaintext. The stock trading service said it discovered the issue on Monday night, when it found “some user credentials” stored in readable formats on its internal systems.

“Your Robinhood password may have been included,” Robinhood said in the email. “We resolved this issue, and after thorough review, found no evidence that this information was accessed by anyone outside of our response team.”

Still, it recommends changing your password.

A Robinhood spokesperson told CNET sister site ZDNet via phone that not all users were impacted, but did not say how many were. Passwords are now being hashed using the Bcrypt algorithm, according to a help page, ZDNet added.

Security on CNET

• Equifax breach: You can now file a claim for your share of the $700M settlement
• John McAfee ‘released from confinement’
• How to become a privacy ninja: Use these journalist tools
• NSA aims to up its cybersecurity game

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