Revealed: Marriott's 500 Million Hack Came After A String Of Security Breaches

On Friday, hospitality giant Marriott revealed a massive hack led to the theft of personal data of a whopping 500 million customers of its Starwood hotels.

To some onlookers the breach, one of the biggest on record, was astonishing. To those who’ve been tracking Marriott and Starwood digital security, it wasn’t a huge surprise. Prior to the four-year-old breach being discovered, Marriott suffered at least one previously unreported hack, including an infection that hit the company’s own cyber-incident response team, Forbes has learned. And there’s evidence Russian cybercriminals have breached Starwood Web servers. read more »

Marriott Hack Adds Passport Headache

It has become a familiar dance: A company reports a data breach, and you dutifully change your passwords, ask for a new credit card and hope your information doesn’t end up for sale on the dark web. But the hack that last week engulfed Marriott — and 500 million of its customers — has added a new step: Your passport might be at risk, too. read more »

Former drug exec pleads guilty to pushing painkiller prescriptions

A former high-ranking executive of an Arizona-based drug company pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Boston for his role in a nationwide conspiracy to bribe doctors to unnecessarily prescribe a fentanyl-based painkiller.

Alec Burlakoff, former vice president of sales of Chandler, Ariz.-based Insys Therapeutics, pleaded guilty to a count of racketeering conspiracy before US District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs.

By agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors, he could become a crucial witness at the trial in January of six former Insys executives accused of participating in the scheme. They include the company’s billionaire founder, John Kapoor. read more »