Hall County, Georgia reported on October 7, 2020, that it was the victim of a ransomware attack that disrupted some of its systems, including email and telephone services in public buildings and the sheriff’s offices. Last week, the county indicated that in addition to telephone and email services, the ransomware attack also affected the county’s
Georgia
Privacy Tip #220 – Identity Theft Still in Top Three Frauds Reported to FTC
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
Three million fraud cases were reported to the FTC in 2018, and 444,602 of them involved identity theft. These reported cases (just think of how high the statistic would be if all cases were reported) amounts to the third most common type of fraud reported to the FTC.
According to The Motley Fool, of…
On the Border Restaurant Suffers Data Breach
By Kathryn Rattigan on
Posted in Data Breach
Last week, the Tex-Mex restaurant chain On the Border suffered a data breach that impacted its payment acceptance systems in 27 states. The restaurant says that some credit card information of customers who visited the chain between April and August 2019 may have been compromised. In a press release, On the Border representatives said, “Our…
Jackson County, Georgia Pays Hackers $400,000 After Ransomware Attack
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Cybersecurity
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…
Technology Boost Helps Protect Super Bowl LIII
By Guest Contributor on
Posted in Drones
The biggest sporting event of the year is now over— and the Patriots, with the help of NFL super duo Tom Brady (the oldest quarterback to ever win the Super Bowl) and Bill Belichick (the oldest head coach to ever win the Super Bowl) took the title—New England’s sixth since 2002.
Over 100 million people…
Physician Convicted of HIPAA Violation Receives Probation
By Conor Duffy on
According to reports, a Georgia-based physician who previously pleaded guilty to criminal violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) received six months of probation from a Massachusetts federal judge earlier this week.
The physician – a pediatric cardiologist – pleaded guilty in February, 2018 to a misdemeanor count of wrongful disclosure of…
Election Day: Five Security Experts Conclude that Georgia’s Online Voter Database is Easily Hackable
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Data Breach, Data Security
According to reports by WhoWhatWhy and the Associated Press, five security experts have confirmed a private citizen’s allegation that the Georgia Online Voter Database contains a major security flaw and is vulnerable to hackers. According to one of the experts from the University of Michigan, anyone with access to an individual voter’s personal information could alter that voter’s information in the database. Another commented that the problem is easily detectable, and that it was clear that the system “has never been audited by any computer security professional.”…
Continue Reading Election Day: Five Security Experts Conclude that Georgia’s Online Voter Database is Easily Hackable
Two Federal Criminal Convictions for Cyberattacks
By Dan Sullivan on
Posted in Cybersecurity, Enforcement + Litigation
The month of August saw two federal criminal convictions of individuals involved in significant cyberattacks.
In Boston, a federal jury convicted Martin Gottesfeld of one count of conspiracy to intentionally damage a protected computer and one count of intentional damage to protected computers. The charges resulted from 2014 Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks on…
All You Need to Know About Flying Your Drone During the Solar Eclipse
By Kathryn Rattigan on
Posted in Drones
Next week, on August 21, a total solar eclipse (or the alignment of the sun, moon and earth), visible from the continental U.S., will take place for the first time in 38 years. The last time this cosmic event occurred, there were no battery-powered supercomputers—smartphones—in your hand to fly a self-stabilizing, GPS-guided aircraft with a…
DOJ Announces Project Focused on Admissibility of Forensic Evidence
By Kelly Sweeney on
Posted in Enforcement + Litigation
This morning, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced an initiative aimed at “examining and strengthening forensic science.” Presumably, the initiative will impact how the DOJ approaches digital forensic evidence in criminal prosecutions.
Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein made the announcement at the International Association for Identification’s (IAI) conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The IAI…