Protection of industrial control systems is crucial to the security of our country. The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has announced a project for which it is seeking comment: Detecting and Protecting Against Data Integrity Attacks in Industrial Control System (ICS) Environments. The project scope is to assist manufacturing organizations in taking a comprehensive … Continue Reading
Although many thought that WannaCry was in the rear view mirror, a recent report by Artemis, based on client experience, found that health care organizations and manufacturing companies are still being hit with the ransomware that affected hundreds of thousands of machines in 2017. According to the report, 40 percent of Artemis’ health care clients … Continue Reading
The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) this week approved an information security model rule package aimed at improving the cybersecurity posture of the 17,543 state-registered advisers. The proposed model would require state-registered investment advisers to establish written cybersecurity policies and procedures designed to safeguard clients’ records and information, and to deliver its privacy policy … Continue Reading
It is not unusual for lawyers to send emails to individuals and businesses they are about to sue to engage them before they do file suit to see if a settlement can be discussed or reached. The lawyer will reach out via email with a copy of the proposed Complaint, and tell the individual or … Continue Reading
According to a recent FBI Flash, Ryuk ransomware has hit more than 100 U.S. companies since August 2018, with a “disproportionate impact on logistics companies, technology companies, and small municipalities.” The Flash, “provided in order to help cyber security professionals and system administrators to guard against the persistent malicious actions of cyber criminals,” seeks information … Continue Reading
Hotel chain Fillmore Hospitality, LLC is the latest target of a proposed class action complaint filed this week, alleging violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). We don’t usually discuss the specific allegations in BIPA cases, but since they continue to populate the litigation landscape, we thought it would be instructive to take … Continue Reading
Another city, another ransomware attack. Cities and municipalities continue to be targeted with ransomware campaigns. Fortunately, in this case, essential services such as fire, police, Emergency Medical Services and 311 service were still operational despite the attack. According to a tweet by Mayor Bernard Young, Baltimore shut down its servers in response to the ransomware … Continue Reading
According to a recent survey of cybersecurity professionals by AT&T Cybersecurity entitled “Confidence: the perception and reality of cybersecurity threats,” phishing and cloud security threats are keeping them up at night. The survey polled 733 cybersecurity professionals attending the RSA conference and asked the respondents about what they perceive to be the biggest internal and … Continue Reading
According to Hiscox’s Third Cyber Readiness Report, which surveyed 5,400 firms in the U.S. and the E.U., cyber threats have “become the unavoidable cost of doing business today.” The Report notes that for the first time, “a significant majority of firms surveyed said they experienced one or more cyber-attacks in the last 12 months. Both … Continue Reading
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a warning on April 15, 2019, entitled “VPN Applications Insecurely Store Session Cookies” (Vulnerability Note VU#192371) stating that “[M]ultiple Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications store the authentication and/or session cookies insecurely in memory and/or log files.” The affected products identified by DHS are: Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect Agent … Continue Reading
I have been alerting clients that I know use Wipro, but may have missed some of you. It is being reported that IT outsourcing company Wipro Ltd. has been hacked through several phishing campaigns from what is believed to be a state-sponsored attacker. According to recent reports, including KrebsonSecurity, sources have stated that “Wipro’s systems … Continue Reading
Following in the footsteps of the New York Department of Financial Regulation (NYDFS) in enacting cybersecurity requirements for the financial services industry, and in response to massive data breaches in the insurance industry, a wave of states have either enacted or are pursuing legislation aimed at regulating the cybersecurity measures of insurance companies. In 2017, … Continue Reading
New malicious malware dubbed “Gustuff” targets big banks, fintech companies and cryptocurrency apps, according to the security firm Group IB. According to Group IB, which discovered Gustuff on hacker forums, the new malware is affecting Android devices and is “a mobile Android Trojan, which includes potential targets of customers in leading international banks, users of … Continue Reading
In the last two weeks, ransomware dubbed LockerGoga has attacked aluminum manufacturer Norsk Hydro, which announced that as a result of the attack, it had to shut down its worldwide network and chemical companies Hexion and Momentive. According to reports, each of the companies received similar ransomware messages. One company had to order all new … Continue Reading
The headlines of hacking incidents against counties, cities and towns are racking up like the retail space was several years ago. The hackers have targeted state and municipalities to wreak their havoc. This week, Orange County, NC was hit with a ransomware attack that brought it to its knees. As a result of the attack, … Continue Reading
Security researchers at Adversis have discovered that dozens of companies have inadvertently leaked corporate and customer data through their Box enterprise storage accounts because staff are sharing public links to their private corporate files. According to the researchers, data stored in Box enterprise accounts is private by default, but if users share the files or … Continue Reading
Cities and towns continue to be a profitable target for successful ransomware attacks. As we previously reported [view related posts], the list of cities and towns getting hit with ransomware attacks continues to grow. Last week, Jackson County, Georgia admitted that it paid hackers $400,000 to obtain access to its information that was locked down … Continue Reading
Cybersecurity company Carbon Black recently issued a report of the results of a survey of chief information security officers (CISOs) of financial organizations, which showed that the financial industry is getting hammered by more frequent and sophisticated cyber-attacks. Carbon Black partnered with Optiv to survey banks and financial institutions around the world. According to the … Continue Reading
In an effort to phase out what many in the security world believe are threats to the cybersecurity posture of governmental agencies and private entities alike, John Quinn, the Chief Information Officer of the State of Vermont, recently issued a memo to all state offices requesting that they determine whether any hardware or software manufactured … Continue Reading
We predicted last year that hackers would become more malicious in the future, not only stealing and selling data for nefarious purposes, but actually destroying data and even systems. That reality hit email provider VFEmail last week, and on February 12, founder Rick Romero tweeted “Yes, @VFEmail is effectively gone. It will likely not return. … Continue Reading
The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA) was intended to incentivize private entities to share threat intelligence information with the federal government (specifically the Department of Homeland Security), allowing all parties to react more quickly and efficiently to cyber threats. The vision was that thousands of companies would sign on, creating a powerful network … Continue Reading
To illustrate just how creative phishing campaigns have become, on January 30, 2019, it was reported by multiple credit unions that Bank Secrecy Act officers at credit unions around the country received emails that appeared to be from Bank Secrecy Officers at other credit unions. The emails were addressed to the actual Bank Secrecy officers … Continue Reading
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Team (US-CERT) recently issued an advisory outlining three vulnerabilities of Drager Infinity Delta patient monitoring devices. The vulnerabilities affect all versions of the Drager models—Delta, Delta XL, Kappa, and infinity Explorer C700—patient monitoring devices. According to the alert, the three security flaws include: Exposure … Continue Reading
I was a speaker at a recent conference of municipalities in a state last week, and during my presentation, I mentioned the various cyber-attacks that have affected cities, towns and educational departments in the U.S. (Atlanta, GA; Farmington, CT; West Haven, CT; Leeds, AL; Yarrow Point, WA; and Leominster, MA to name a few). Little … Continue Reading
