Happy Friday! Take this opportunity to catch up on cybersecurity news with our picks for this week’s hottest articles from the IT and security presses:

1. “Alleged White House hack highlights typical security failings, say experts” by Warwick Ashford
   This week another cyber-attack was administered against the U.S. Government, but this time the target was President Obama. Hackers were able to use the breach against the U.S. State Department as leverage for this new attack. Although the breached information is considered to be unclassified, it did include "sensitive information, such as real-time non-public details of the president's schedule.” Read this article to find out more.
2. “Banks face new cyber security rules for vendors” by Kevin McCoy
   It comes as no surprise that reports say financial institutions need to enhance their cyber security measures. Third party vendors in particular raise concern for financial institutions as these vendors make it possible for hackers to gain backdoor access and compromise customer data. A survey that was conducted by the New York Department of Financial services found that 40 of the banks surveyed do not require notification by their third-party vendors about security breaches. To learn more about this problem, check out this article.
3. “What Happens When Personal Information Hits The Dark Web” by Kelly Jackson Higgins
   Have you ever wondered how much your personal information is worth on the dark web? A security vendor called BitGlass conducted an experiment to find out what hackers do with the information they steal from the entities they breach. For the results of this experiment, read this article.
4. “Baby cam plays creepy music, moves of its own accord” by Lisa Vaas
   Parents begin hearing strange music coming from the nursery and then their baby cam starts moving on its own. Sounds like paranormal activity, right? However, this was just the result of a hacker hijacking the IP device of the wireless cam to spy on the baby. This story highlights the problems associated with poorly protected, internet-enabled webcams. For more, give this article a read.
5. “Facebook Sued for Creating Facial Recognition Database” by Shirley Siluk
   Earlier this month a lawsuit was filed against Facebook in a Chicago-area court regarding Facebook’s new facial recognition technology. Despite this technology making it easier for Facebook users to connect online, it is considered to be “unlawful for a company to, among other things, 'collect, capture, purchase, receive through trade, or otherwise obtain a person's or a customer's biometric identifiers or biometric information'" without consent. To find out more about this lawsuit, check out Siluk’s article.