Home Depot breach totals: 56 million credit cards exposed, $62 million in losses

Lots of people who speculated about the credit card data breach at the Home Depot turned out to be wrong. But those who suggested that Home Depot’s breach might end up bigger than Target’s turned out to be spot on.

Chinese hackers breached US military contractors, says Senate report

Military contractors for the US Transportation Command were breached by hackers associated with the Chinese government at least 20 times in one year, according to a report released Wednesday by the US Senate Armed Services Committee.

SSCC 165 – “U2 or not U2,” that is the question [PODCAST]

It’s Chet Chat time! Here’s this week’s episode of our news-you-can-use security podcast…

Is Facebook building a “Moments” app for ultra-private sharing?

The company’s reportedly putting the finishing touches on a separate app for composing intimate updates, designed to be an entirely different experience than what we have now: the kludgy toggling of the sharing settings on one composer interface in order to create both intimate content and blasted-out-to-the-universe Newsfeed updates.

Facebook meets with LGBT community over real-name policy

Facebook’s recently been cracking down on stage names, locking drag queens and transgenders out of their accounts until they switch accounts to their legal names. After mounting protests, Facebook reps scheduled a meeting with San Francisco activists and city officials over its real-name policy, which many say discriminates against the LGBT community.

Apple questioned on Watch privacy by state attorney general

Apple calls the gadget its “most personal device ever”. Attorney General George Jepsen would like to know how Apple’s planning to protect all that data, which will include things as intimate as our heartbeats.

California passes “landmark bill” to protect students’ personal data

There’s a lot at stake: think student records that cover attendance, grades, discipline, health, academics, intimate details about family members, parent and student contact information, biometrics, and sometimes even a child’s geolocation.