Privacy Roundup #0223 • February 2025
February 2025 was defined by encryption under siege, with Britain and Sweden pressing for backdoors while breaches, AI chatbots, and a new government data grab kept defenders busy.
1. Apple pulls iCloud end-to-end encryption from the United Kingdom
Apple withdrew its Advanced Data Protection feature for British users on 21 February after the government secretly ordered the company to build a way into encrypted iCloud data. New users can no longer enable the protection, and existing users will eventually have to turn it off.
2. Sweden weighs a law to force backdoors into Signal and WhatsApp
Swedish police and security agencies pushed legislation that would compel encrypted messaging apps to retain messages and hand over suspects' histories. Signal's president said the company would leave the Swedish market rather than break the encryption that underpins its service.
3. Judge blocks DOGE from accessing Treasury payment systems
A federal judge restricted the Department of Government Efficiency from reaching Treasury databases holding the payment records of millions of Americans. States had sued to stop the access, arguing that affiliates had been handed sensitive personal information they did not need.
4. Musk's DOGE seeks access to sensitive IRS taxpayer records
DOGE pushed for entry to an IRS system holding Social Security numbers, bank details, and salary data for millions of taxpayers. Lawmakers and privacy advocates warned that giving a political appointee such reach raised grave risks of misuse.
5. Experts flag security and privacy risks in the DeepSeek AI app
Security researchers warned that the Chinese chatbot collected extensive user data and sent it to servers in China, where authorities could compel its disclosure. The findings prompted bans on government devices across several American states and federal agencies.
6. South Korea suspends DeepSeek downloads over privacy violations
South Korea's data protection regulator found that DeepSeek had transferred personal data, including user prompts, to third parties without proper consent. The company removed its app from South Korean stores on 15 February while the issues were addressed.
7. Mozilla rewrites Firefox terms after a privacy backlash
Mozilla introduced new Firefox terms granting itself a broad licence over information entered through the browser, alarming users who feared their data would be sold or fed to AI. Facing the outcry, Mozilla revised the language and insisted it was not using people's data to train AI.
8. Grubhub confirms a breach affecting customers and drivers
Grubhub disclosed on 4 February that an intrusion at a third-party contractor exposed customer and driver contact details, including names, email addresses, and phone numbers. Payment information was not taken, but the data later fed an extortion attempt tied to a wider campaign.
9. Background-check firm DISA reveals a breach affecting 3.3 million people
Employment screening provider DISA Global Solutions disclosed that hackers had accessed the data of more than 3.3 million people, including Social Security numbers and financial details. The company took roughly ten months after discovering the intrusion to notify those affected.
10. Australian IVF provider Genea confirms hackers accessed patient data
The fertility giant Genea told patients on 19 February that attackers had reached its systems during a cyberattack claimed by the Termite ransomware group. The stolen records included names, addresses, Medicare numbers, and sensitive medical histories.
11. Hacker leaks 34 million OmniGPT chat messages
A threat actor claimed to have breached the AI aggregator OmniGPT, exposing the email addresses and phone numbers of 30,000 users along with more than 34 million lines of conversation. The leaked logs reportedly contained credentials, billing details, and API keys.
12. China's Salt Typhoon keeps breaching telecom firms despite sanctions
Researchers reported that the Salt Typhoon group continued to compromise telecommunications providers by exploiting old Cisco vulnerabilities. The campaign followed earlier intrusions that reached the lawful intercept systems used for law enforcement wiretaps.
13. Court grants preliminary approval to Apple's $95 million Siri settlement
A federal judge preliminarily approved a $95 million deal settling claims that Siri recorded private conversations after accidental activations and shared them with third parties. Class members can claim up to $20 per device, and Apple agreed to delete older Siri audio recordings.
14. Spain arrests a hacker accused of attacking NATO and the United States Army
Spanish police arrested a suspect on 5 February over roughly forty cyberattacks that breached systems run by NATO, the United States Army, the United Nations, and Spanish bodies. Investigators said the suspect had leaked and sold stolen data under several aliases.
15. Orange Group confirms a breach after a hacker leaks internal documents
The French telecoms operator Orange confirmed an intrusion at its Romanian operations after a HellCat-linked actor leaked thousands of files. The haul included around 380,000 email addresses, source code, contracts, and employee and customer records.
16. Mozilla is still promoting the data removal service Onerep
Krebs on Security reported that Mozilla continued to recommend the data removal service Onerep almost a year after the founder was tied to people-search sites. The arrangement undercut Mozilla's privacy messaging, since the same person had profited from exposing the very data Onerep promised to scrub.
17. Phished card data is being turned into Apple and Google wallets
Investigators detailed how Chinese cybercrime groups revived the carding trade by loading stolen card details into mobile wallets. The technique lets criminals spend phished funds online and in shops, bypassing many fraud controls.
18. A notorious malware and spam host shifts onto Kaspersky networks
One of the most abuse-friendly bulletproof hosting providers for cybercriminals began routing its traffic through networks operated by the Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab. The move raised fresh questions about who is shielding online criminal infrastructure.
19. New administration brings cuts to cyber and consumer protections
Krebs on Security reported that early moves under the new administration weakened agencies that guard data security and consumer privacy. The cuts threatened oversight of data brokers and the watchdogs that hold breached companies to account.
20. United States soldier charged in the AT&T phone records hack
A serving soldier charged over the theft of AT&T customer call records had searched online whether hacking could be treason. The case shed light on how stolen telecom data, including the records of public figures, was traded among young criminals.
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