A new report issued by Sophos, The State of Ransomware in Education 2021, found that the education sector as a whole experienced a higher level of ransomware attacks than any other industry in 2021.

Sophos interviewed 499 IT “decision makers” in 30 countries in January and February of 2021.

The findings in the education

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a Final Rule on October 27, 2021, amending the Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information, known as “the Safeguards Rule,” under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which is applicable to a broad range of non-banking financial institutions. The FTC approved the Amendment by a vote of 3-2. The FTC’s press release states

Trucking company Forward Air revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it suffered a ransomware attack in December 2020 (reportedly by Hades), which caused business disruption as it was forced to “suspend its electronic data interfaces with its customers.” The attack also inhibited its ability to release freight for transport.

Forward

Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) continues to be a problem for employers who are using biometric information such as palm readers or fingerprint timekeeping software.
This week, waste management company GFL Environmental Services USA Inc. (GFL) agreed to settle a proposed class action case filed by some of its employees alleging violation of BIPA.

Although executives of organizations report that ransomware is their number one security concern, and 87 percent of them expect an increase in cyber-attacks against their organizations over the next year, only one-third of them said they had conducted a tabletop exercise to prepare for a ransomware attack.

According to a survey of 50 executives, Deloitte

Yesterday (August 25, 2021), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a fact sheet offering suggestions to government agencies and private companies on how to prevent and respond to a ransomware attack.

The fact sheet, entitled Protecting Sensitive and Personal Information from Ransomware-Caused Data Breaches provides organizations with tips to prevent and respond to

In an unusual but significant move, on August 4, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) removed Aristotle International from the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Safe Harbor List. There were 7 organizations on the list, which were approved by the FTC to self-regulate themselves under COPPA, but with this first removal by the FTC,