The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Management (VA) has announced that it is notifying approximately 46,000 veterans that their personal information was compromised when hackers were able to access an online application that allowed them to divert payments designated for community health care organizations that provide medical care to veterans to the hackers’ … Continue Reading
Cyber liability insurers are in a good position to provide insight into the types of cyber incidents that are hitting the industry. Coalition, a provider of cyber insurance globally, which “serves over 25,000 small and midsize organizations across every sector of the US and Canada,” issued its Cyber Claims Report this week about the claims … Continue Reading
Cyber-attackers know that city and town officials have been gearing up for the start of school and the potential for remote learning, in school or a hybrid model all summer. The daily monitoring of the coronavirus has kept officials alert and flexible as they focus on the start of school. Cyber-attackers also know that cities … Continue Reading
When the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) get together to issue an alert to warn us about a security threat, you can bet that the threat is real, and that they have seen it used successfully at an alarming rate. The joint advisory issued on August 20, … Continue Reading
The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have issued a joint Flash Alert to U.S. based businesses doing business in China about a remote targeting campaign whereby the tax software that Chinese domestic banks require foreign companies to install is loaded with malware. Trustwave researchers warned in June … Continue Reading
Auditors have to continue doing their job of auditing, but with the pandemic, audits now are rarely on-site. Many auditing firms are using remote technology to conduct audits, and companies are either forwarding files electronically, using cloud-based portals or meeting with their auditors over technology meeting platforms such as Zoom and/or teams. There are risks … Continue Reading
When the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) get together to issue a joint warning, you may wish to listen up. The NSA and FBI recently alerted the defense industry through a Cybersecurity Advisory of the risk of malware attacks targeted at the defense and aerospace sectors by Russia’s General … Continue Reading
Adding insult to injury for cruise ship company Carnival Corporation (Carnival) following the hit from the pandemic to the travel industry as well as a class action lawsuit relating to the Diamond Princess’ fate during the pandemic, Carnival disclosed in its August 17, 2020 8-K filing that it recently experienced a ransomware attack. According to … Continue Reading
It is being reported by ZDNet that the Maze ransomware group has attacked two companies that, apparently, refused to pay the requested ransom, so Maze, as it promises, recently released approximately 76GB combined of the companies’ data on the Internet. True to its threat, once Maze is able to infiltrate a company’s system, it exfiltrates … Continue Reading
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced this week that it has entered into a Consent Order and fined Capital One $80 million for the data breach the company experienced last year. The OCC announced the fine and stated that it was the result of an investigation that found that Capital … Continue Reading
I have never been a fan of TikTok [view related post]. In general, I do not trust any Chinese technology companies because of the influence and requirements the Chinese government wields over them. The Chinese government has been stealing U.S.-based companies’ intellectual property for decades, has required U.S.-based companies to provide computer code in order … Continue Reading
On July 20, 2020, the Connecticut Insurance Department issued a bulletin to licensees reminding them that the Connecticut Insurance Data Security Law (“Act”) becomes effective on October 1, 2020 and providing guidance on compliance. The Act requires “all persons who are licensed, authorized to operate or registered, or required to be licensed, authorized or registered … Continue Reading
This week, I received a breach notification letter from a large financial institution stating that my personal information, including my name, Social Security number, account name and number, contact information, date of birth, and asset information may have been compromised. UGH—that is highly sensitive information. Unfortunately, this is not the first time my personal information … Continue Reading
On July 10, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission, through its Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), issued a warning to advisors and broker-dealers to “immediately” review their cybersecurity controls to prevent and respond to an increase in phishing campaigns and ransomware attacks. The Risk Alert advises that the OCIE has “observed an apparent … Continue Reading
It doesn’t matter in which state you are located, how many patients you treat, what kind of medicine you practice or how many employees you have, if you are a health care provider, you are being targeted and hackers are successful in victimizing you. That’s my take on the recent Becker’s Health IT article that … Continue Reading
A recent report released by the British Ports Association and Astaara, a risk management firm based in the U.K., concludes that since February 2020, the maritime industry has seen a dramatic increase in cyber-attacks. The number of attacks has quadrupled, as companies struggle with COVID-19 and remote work forces. According to the report, in what … Continue Reading
On June 5, 2020, Florence, Alabama’s information technology systems were hit with ransomware by the DoppelPaymer group demanding a ransom payment of $378,000 in bitcoin. Mayor Steve Holt confirmed that the attack shut down the city’s email system, and that the city used an outside firm to negotiate the payment of a lower ransom of … Continue Reading
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cybersecurity advisory arm issued a warning on its website that “[M]alicious cyber actors are targeting unpatched systems” with a new exploit code that on unpatched systems could spread to millions of computers. The exploit code, called SMBGhost, attacks a security vulnerability in the server message block (SMB) that Microsoft … Continue Reading
As a litigator, when responding to any security incident, thoughtful consideration is given to the possibility that the security incident may wind up in litigation, and therefore, certain decisions are made in anticipation of that litigation. Without getting into the details of the legal doctrines of attorney-client privileges, work product doctrine, and in anticipation of … Continue Reading
The Office of Court Administration in Texas (OCA) confirmed late last week that it is the victim of a ransomware attack. The OCA stated that it would not pay the ransom. “OCA was able to catch the ransomware and limit its impact, and will not pay any ransom…Work continues to bring all judicial resources and … Continue Reading
Live adult streaming website CAM4 has reportedly not secured 7TB of users’ information, which may be able to be used for blackmail and identity theft purposes, according to researchers from Safety Detectives. According to reports, CAM4 users pay to watch live streamed explicit adult content from consenting amateur performers who film themselves and post the … Continue Reading
In a growing trend, pharmaceutical company ExecuPharm became the victim of a ransomware attack on March 13, 2020, by the CLOP ransomware group, which exfiltrated its data and then posted it on the Internet. Apparently, ExecuPharm didn’t pay the ransom, and then paid the price anyway by having its data compromised and posted by the … Continue Reading
Some good news in the ransomware world, which is so rare these days. The Shade (Troldesh) ransomware group has retired and is shutting down. When do you ever hear that a ransomware group is shutting down? According to reports, Shade has publicly announced that it is retiring (apparently it has made enough money to do … Continue Reading
The hackers behind the Sodinokibi/REvil ransomware have reportedly switched their demands for payment from Bitcoin or Ethereum to Monero cryptocurrency to try to prevent law enforcement from tracking payments. The hackers reportedly advertised the switch in a posting to an online hacker and malware forum, and admitted that the switch from Bitcoin to Monero is … Continue Reading
