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
Spam is invading all aspects of our online life, and of late, even our online calendars. I hadn’t thought about embedded malware in calendar invites until I read an informative krebsonsecurity.com blog article this week. I think this is something everyone should know about and be mindful of when receiving calendar invites. Calendar invites are … Continue Reading
Security research firm Gigamon has reported that the nasty cybercriminal group FIN8 may have reappeared in June after a two year silence. FIN8 is known for implementing malware on point of sale systems to steal credit card information and selling it on the dark web. FIN8 appears to be back in business with a new … Continue Reading
The United States Treasury Department came out with a report last week that concludes that business email compromises (BEC) are costing U.S. companies more than $301 million per month. The report confirms that the two industries hit the hardest by these scams are manufacturing and construction. The report, issued by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes … 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
The tension with Iran has generally increased, and it has been reported that the U.S. has launched a cyber-attack against Iran. In retaliation, the risk of Iranian-backed wiper malware attacks against U.S. businesses and government agencies has increased, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS recently issued a warning to U.S. businesses to … Continue Reading
We all have been trained to look at website addresses with a critical eye to make sure they have “https,” as those websites are supposed to be secure. The “s” at the end signifies to us that it is secure. The lock at the beginning of the website address is supposed to signify that it … Continue Reading
It is not unusual for lawyers to send emails to individuals and businesses they are about to sue to engage them before they do file suit to see if a settlement can be discussed or reached. The lawyer will reach out via email with a copy of the proposed Complaint, and tell the individual or … Continue Reading
According to a recent survey of cybersecurity professionals by AT&T Cybersecurity entitled “Confidence: the perception and reality of cybersecurity threats,” phishing and cloud security threats are keeping them up at night. The survey polled 733 cybersecurity professionals attending the RSA conference and asked the respondents about what they perceive to be the biggest internal and … Continue Reading
I have been alerting clients that I know use Wipro, but may have missed some of you. It is being reported that IT outsourcing company Wipro Ltd. has been hacked through several phishing campaigns from what is believed to be a state-sponsored attacker. According to recent reports, including KrebsonSecurity, sources have stated that “Wipro’s systems … Continue Reading
The Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) announced late last week that nine of its staff members had fallen victim to a phishing campaign and that their email boxes were compromised on January 8, 2019. The intrusion was discovered on January 28, 2019. When the intrusion was discovered, the staff members’ changed their passwords to … Continue Reading
In another round of warnings from the federal government on protecting yourself from tax return fraud and identity theft, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued its 2019 “Dirty Dozen” Campaign, designed to warn individuals about the most common tax-related phishing schemes that are focused on tax fraud and identity theft. During tax season, cyber … Continue Reading
To illustrate just how creative phishing campaigns have become, on January 30, 2019, it was reported by multiple credit unions that Bank Secrecy Act officers at credit unions around the country received emails that appeared to be from Bank Secrecy Officers at other credit unions. The emails were addressed to the actual Bank Secrecy officers … Continue Reading
With more companies hiring, online recruiting scams have re-emerged to prey on job seekers and employers. The Better Business Bureau tracked more than 3,000 recruiting scams in the first 10 months of 2018 with losses in the million dollars. The online recruiting scam works this way: the scammer fraudulently uses a company’s name and logo, … Continue Reading
According to a new report by Datto, Inc. (its third annual Global State of the Channel Ransomware Report), ransomware continues to be the top cyber-attack experienced by small- and medium-sized companies. Some managed service providers were surveyed in Singapore, the Asia-Pacific region and across the globe. Fifty-five percent of them said their clients had experienced … Continue Reading
Phishing attacks continue to hit health care providers and experts say the attacks will become even more frequent in 2019. As previously reported, the largest breach of health care information was recently settled by Anthem, which involved almost 80 million individuals’ information, all caused by a phishing email sent to one individual at Anthem [view … Continue Reading
Phishing campaigns continue to be one of the most successful ways for malicious intruders to access company information, including personal information of employees and customers. Phishing emails continue to get more and more sophisticated and employees continue to fall victim to them, often putting the entire company at risk. Typical successful phishing campaigns end with … Continue Reading
Small businesses are targeted by hackers because they often do not have the resources to stay abreast of new schemes, or to protect against them with the latest technology or security solutions. Small businesses have historically struggled with data security, so any help is always welcome. Recognizing that small businesses struggle with data security, the … Continue Reading
An old trick is coming back and working. It is a wire fraud scheme targeted at homeowners instead of businesses, and it is happening at an alarming rate. Here’s how it works: An individual is in the process of purchasing a home. Most of the communication in real estate transactions these days is done via … Continue Reading
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 … Continue Reading
In a lawsuit against its insurance company requesting reimbursement for close to $2.4 million from two different hacking incidents, National Bank of Blacksburg detailed the intrusions, which are instructive of a sophisticated scheme against the financial services industry. According to the lawsuit, the first theft took place on Memorial Day weekend of 2016. In that … Continue Reading
Inogen, which manufactures portable oxygen devices, has alerted the Securities and Exchange Commission in a recent filing that it is notifying 30,000 individuals that their personal information was compromised when a hacker gained access to one of its employees’ email accounts through a phishing scheme. The incident illustrates how the manufacturing sector is continuing to … Continue Reading
Late last week, a joint statement by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed that the Russian government has been behind an ongoing targeted campaign to penetrate U.S. power plants and the electric grid. Of course, this fact has been well known and has been reported on repeatedly in the … Continue Reading
In a recent Public Service Announcement dated February 21, 2018 entitled “Increase in W-2 Phishing Campaigns,” the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) issued another alert about an increase in phishing campaigns since the beginning of 2018. According to the FBI, “IRS’s Online Fraud Detection & Prevention (OFDP), which monitors for suspected IRS-related phishing emails, observed … Continue Reading
