The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is warning critical infrastructure operators to be on high alert for Iranian backed cyber-attacks because of the vulnerability of state and municipal computer systems, they are at high risk for attack from Iranian-based hackers. We have seen states and municipalities get hammered with ransomware in the past year. Now … Continue Reading
It is being reported that LifeLabs, a Canadian lab company that is the largest provider of laboratory diagnostics and lab testing services in Canada, recently paid an undisclosed ransom to hackers who compromised its computer system that housed patient lab data. The hackers apparently compromised the system, exfiltrated data and demanded that the company pay … Continue Reading
Beginning in 2016, the computer hacking organization known as “The Dark Overlord,” began to target victims in the St. Louis, Missouri area, including various health care providers, several accounting firms, and a medical records company. By remotely accessing these victims’ computer networks without authorization, The Dark Overlord was able to obtain sensitive records and information, … Continue Reading
If, like me, you travel a lot, listen up—the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has issued an advisory as part of its fraud education campaign warning travelers not to use free USB charging stations offered in airports, hotels and other public places. According to the warning, “juice jacking” occurs when hackers have loaded malware into … Continue Reading
The New York “Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act” (SHIELD Act), N.Y. Gen Bus. Law§ 899-bb, requires businesses that collect private information on New York residents to implement reasonable cybersecurity safeguards to protect that information. While this is a new law in the State of New York, it is simply joining other states, … Continue Reading
Many cities in the United States utilize a self-pay portal for residents to pay bills online, known as Click2Gov. Click2Gov was compromised in 2017 and 2018, when hackers were able to access over 300,000 payment cards and reportedly made more than $2 million in the heist. It is being reported this week by security researchers … Continue Reading
July 2019 was the worst month in history for health care data breaches, with a total of 50 breaches that affected more than 500 records reported to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), according to HIPAA Journal. Those 50 reportable data breaches exposed more than 35 million individuals’ health care records. HIPAA Journal opines that … Continue Reading
It’s a busy time for colleges and universities as the fall semester starts and campuses are bustling with activity. It’s also the perfect time for cyber criminals to create mayhem for institutions of higher education with a cyber-attack. That is exactly what happened to Regis University in Denver, Colorado. The university had to shut down … Continue Reading
Many readers have reached out to learn about the Capital One data breach and how it affects us. If you haven’t been watching the story unfold as closely as I have, here is a summary of what happened, what information was included, and what to do about it. Capital One announced on July 29 that … Continue Reading
As reported today by Help Net Security, hackers are targeting Microsoft Office365 administrators in a new phishing campaign that can obtain and confirm credentials in real time. According to the article the attack begins with a fake Office365 notification where all the links in the message link back to fake Office365 sites at the windows.net … Continue Reading
Security researchers have warned municipalities repeatedly about how they are being targeted with ransomware, that they are at high risk, and the need to make data security a high priority. Municipalities are unfortunately only taking heed now that recent ransomware campaigns are in the news and bringing some municipalities to their knees [view related posts … Continue Reading
Earlier this month, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging a Chinese national and another individual as part of an extremely sophisticated hacking group operating in China that targeted large businesses in the United States, including health insurer Anthem. The indictment stemmed from an investigation by the FBI in which Anthem cooperated, earning praise … Continue Reading
In the top three of the list of highly sensitive personal data to be concerned about is our medical information. It’s so sensitive because it is so personal. It used to be that our medical information was located in paper charts at our doctor’s office, the hospital, the pharmacy and our health insurer. Now it’s … Continue Reading
WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging app announced a hack and the exposure of a security flaw this week. The flaw injected malware onto users’ phones, potentially exposing their otherwise encrypted data and messages. WhatsApp allows users to instant message and make phone calls throughout the world. The app features described on its website include simple, … Continue Reading
I came across an article last week that indicated there was a successful attack on Microsoft’s Office 365 and Google’s G Suite environments that was able to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA). However, after reading the article it was immediately clear the attack leveraged an old protocol, IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), which does not support … Continue Reading
So this week’s blog article takes a page from my very own “smart” home devices. Monday morning at about 3:42 a.m. our entire household woke up because every “smart” lightbulb in the house came on at the same time! It was a bit distressing and once we got up and shut off all the lights, … Continue Reading
Players of the popular Fortnite video game have filed a proposed class action suit against the video game’s owner, Epic Games Inc. (“Epic”) alleging that Epic failed to protect players’ accounts, allowing hackers access to their payment details in a 2018 data breach. According to the suit, the players gave Epic their payment information in … Continue Reading
Atrium Health and its vendor, AccuDoc Solutions, released a joint announcement this week that AccuDoc’s database of 2.6 million billing records of Atrium Health’s patients has been compromised by a hacking incident. The information contained in the database included patient names, addresses, dates of birth, health insurance information, account balances, dates of service and some … Continue Reading
Many companies are migrating their email systems to Microsoft Office 365 (O365). The majority of security incidents in which we have been engaged in over the past six months involve a hacker successfully phishing an employee of the company (most of the time someone who is an executive in the company) and then spoofing the … Continue Reading
Facebook announced late last week that it had suffered the largest breach in its history with 50 million accounts were compromised, and another 40 million accounts affected. Yes, that equals 90 million accounts. If you use Facebook and were locked out of your account over the weekend, your account was most likely affected. The 50 … Continue Reading
The State of California is once again leading the way with trying to keep up with technology and protecting consumers. Senate Bill 327 requires Internet of Things (IoT) developers to implement “reasonable security features” in IoT products, such as baby monitors, televisions, automobiles, home appliances, fitness monitors, home security systems, and the like. This is … Continue Reading
Yesterday (September 26, 2018), Uber Technologies Inc. agreed to finish inquiries of all 50 states of its 2016 data breach by paying $148 million in different amounts to all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The settlement concludes the investigations into the data breach, which occurred in 2016 when hackers absconded with the personal … Continue Reading
California lawmakers have taken the lead in trying to address privacy and security issues with Internet of Things (IoT) devices (which we have been writing about for years), by passing the country’s first IoT security bill, which is now headed to Governor Brown’s desk for signature by September 30. One of the issues addressed by … Continue Reading
Data breaches continue to plague the health care industry, and July 2018 was the worst month so far this year in the number of data breaches reported to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Thirty-three data breaches were reported by covered entities and business associates in July, with the largest one reported by UnityPoint Health, … Continue Reading
