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
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New York Department of Financial Services Issues Report on Recent Twitter Hack
By Deborah George on
Posted in Enforcement + Litigation
You probably heard about the recent hack of Twitter accounts that took place on July 15, 2020. The hackers took over several prominent Twitter accounts, which resulted in a scam that netted over $118,000 in bitcoin for the hackers. One of the most startling things about the cyberattack was that it was led by a…
Privacy Tip #256 – COVID-19 Scams Continue to Plague U.S. Public
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Coronavirus, Privacy Tips
It has been widely reported that hackers are taking advantage of the pandemic to perpetrate scams and frauds. We have seen attacks against workers of companies through phishing emails that include an attachment or link offering information or access to specialized treatment for COVID-19 to lure people to click on them. Once they click on…
U.S. Chamber of Commerce and FICO Release Security Guidelines on Telework During COVID-19
By Linn Foster Freedman on
It is no secret that companies are experiencing an increase in security incidents following the transition from work in the office to work from home during the pandemic. There are a number of causes, including the difficulty of controlling the security of at-home technology equipment such as routers, printers, personal assistants and other IoT devices,…
Athens Orthopedic Settles with OCR for $1.5M for Data Breach
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has announced that it has settled potential violations of HIPAA with Athens Orthopedic Clinic PA (Athens) for $1.5 million, following an investigation of a data breach that occurred in 2016.
The data breach compromised the protected health information of 208,557 individuals when…
HIPAA Business Associate Pays $2.3 Million Settlement After Hackers Target PHI of Over 6 Million Individuals
By Jean Tomasco on
Health care providers and contractors continue to be a popular target for hackers. Recently, CHSPSC LLC (CHSPSC), which provides various services to hospitals and clinics indirectly owned by Community Health Systems, Inc. of Tennessee, agreed to pay $2,300,000 to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in settlement of potential violations of HIPAA’s Privacy and Security…
U.S. Organizations Doing Business in China Warned of Malware in Tax Software
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Cybersecurity
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…
NSA + FBI Warn Defense Contractors of Russian Hackers
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Cybersecurity
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…
Chinese and Russian Hackers Targeting COVID-19 Vaccine Makers in U.S. Crosshairs
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Coronavirus, Enforcement + Litigation
Last week, authorities from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada accused a well-known hacker group tied to the Russian government, APT29 a/k/a Cozy Bear of using malware to exploit security vulnerabilities to enable it to steal COVID-19 vaccine research from companies located in these countries working to develop a vaccine. This was after a…
Benefit Vendors’ Security Practices
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in New + Now
Most employers use vendors to assist with managing various employee benefits, including payroll, health and dental benefits, pharmacy, cost-reduction strategies, retirement, analysis and wellness programs.
When using these vendors, the personal information of employees is provided to the vendor in data dumps. Usually that means that the vendors receive employees’ names, addresses, dates of birth,…