After the killing of Qassem Soleimani on January 3, 2020, by the U.S. government, the cybersecurity news industry has been abuzz about whether Iran will engage in cyber terrorism, and if so, to what degree, as part of its pledge to strike back at the U.S. On January 5, Forbes reported that the first instance … Continue Reading
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
Although Amazon and Google respond to reports of vulnerabilities in popular home smart assistants Alexa and Google Home, hackers continually work hard to exploit any vulnerabilities in order to listen to users’ every word to obtain sensitive information that can be used in future attacks. Last week, it was reported by ZDNet that two security … Continue Reading
WhatsApp has announced that it has patched a vulnerability that would have allowed hackers to access with malware the chat history of users. Android 8.1 and 9 could have been susceptible to the attack. However, WhatsApp is urging all users to update their app. Although WhatsApp says it has patched the vulnerability and does not … 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
In an interesting case from Indiana, a court recently ruled that language in the insurer’s “quotes” for coverage in a crime policy led the insured to believe that losses for computer hacking would be covered under the policy if the insured purchased coverage. The case, Metal Pro Roofing, LLC v. Cincinnati Insurance Company, 2019 WL … 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 readers of this blog know, data breaches in the health care industry are all too common. Healthcare organizations are an attractive target for hackers because of the nature and amount of personal information that they possess. Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that healthcare organizations have the highest costs associated with data breaches. They … 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 was with a bunch of CFOs this week talking about cybersecurity and I told them how easy it is for hackers these days. They can infiltrate a company’s system by compromising an O365 account that doesn’t have multi-factor authentication, and according to a Ponemon study, are in the company’s system for over 200 days. … Continue Reading
I try to keep my spam filter on the most restrictive setting, which has dramatically decreased the amount of spam I receive in my email box every day. But every once in a while, I receive an email that makes my gut twitch and my eyebrows raise. I got one today from a well-known bank, … 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
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 down … Continue Reading
