Governors of numerous states have issued Executive Orders in the past several weeks banning TikTok from government-issued devices and many have already implemented a ban, with others considering similar measures. There is also bi-partisan support of a ban in the Senate, which unanimously approved a bill last week that would ban the app from devices
Privacy Tip #320 – 2021 Goes Down as Top Year for Fraud
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
2021 will go down in our minds as many things, including the year in which more people reported fraud and the highest dollar amount of fraud losses in history. Not a great statistic.
According to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2021 (the Data Book), the FTC received 5.7 million reports from…
Baltimore County School District Hit with Ransomware Attack Right Before Thanksgiving
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Cybersecurity
Baltimore County Public Schools shut down Monday and Tuesday following a ransomware attack that paralyzed the school system’s network last week right before Thanksgiving.
According to the Baltimore Sun, officials described the event as a “catastrophic attack on our technology system.” The ransomware attack is reported to have hit the entire Baltimore County Public Schools’…
Is this City Monitoring Me?
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Data Privacy
In Coral Gables, Florida, a judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit over the city’s use of automated license plate readers to scan license plates. This technology has faced a number of lawsuits over concerns about the collection and storage of data. The Coral Gables lawsuit stemmed from a Miami suburb resident who filed a request…
Ransomware—to Pay or Not to Pay and Should We Get a Bitcoin Wallet Just in Case?
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in New + Now, Virtual Currency
There’s nothing worse than paying criminals. And paying a ransom for data is just that—paying criminals for a criminal act. All you get out of the payment is access to your data. It doesn’t fix the vulnerability or the root problem. Let the record reflect that the FBI does not recommend paying ransoms to cyber…
City of Baltimore Shuts Down Servers Following Ransomware Attack
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Cybersecurity
Another city, another ransomware attack. Cities and municipalities continue to be targeted with ransomware campaigns. Fortunately, in this case, essential services such as fire, police, Emergency Medical Services and 311 service were still operational despite the attack. According to a tweet by Mayor Bernard Young, Baltimore shut down its servers in response to the ransomware…
Drone Delivers Human Kidney for Transplant
By Kathryn Rattigan on
Posted in Drones
Last month, a University of Maryland unmanned aerial system (UAS or drone) delivered a donor kidney to surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) in Baltimore for an ultimately successful transplant to a patient with kidney failure. The drone flew 2.6 miles in approximately 10 minutes.
This University of Maryland project is important…
U.S. Cities Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks—Recommendations for Preparedness
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Cybersecurity
Not to be super scary, but the reality is that we live in a scary cyber world. A new report published by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance outlines the findings of a cyber exercise based on a hypothetical cyber-attack on Baltimore’s power companies. The exercise was orchestrated and played out by federal and state…
Extra, Extra, Read All About it, News-Gathering Drones Increasingly Hitting the Skies
By Kathryn Rattigan on
Posted in Drones
Since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) started allowing commercial drone operations, media organizations have moved quickly to get their own news-gathering drones in the skies. Recently, Sinclair Broadcast Group (Sinclair) (operator of 173 television stations across the U.S.) announced that it was going “all in” on its news-gathering drone fleet. Sinclair plans to have 80…