Bracey Harris reports: Mississippi education officials were unable to say Friday how many students’ personal information might have been obtained in the wake of a data breach at Questar one of the state’s testing vendors. The Mississippi Department of Education said in a statement Friday that an unauthorized user accessed the information of two districts…
Month: January 2018
CareFirst makes final push for Supreme Court to hear breach case
Jessica Davis reports: Maryland-based CareFirst has filed a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its data breach case, arguing that without a high court review, companies in every sector will be hit with a “flood” of data breach lawsuits in the future. The appeal stems from a decision by the U.S. Court…
Hackers are using recent Microsoft Office vulnerabilities to distribute malware
Danny Palmer reports: Hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office software to spread a sophisticated form of malware capable of stealing credentials, dropping additional malware, cryptocurrency mining and conducting distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The malware has been active since 2016 and despite its powerful capabilities, it’s available to purchase on underground forums for as little…
JP: Zushi ordered to pay ¥1.1 mil. damages for information leak that led to murder
Those of you who are old enough to remember the Rebecca Schaeffer murder may see some similarities in this case. Jiji Press reports: A branch of Yokohama District Court on Monday ordered the city of Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, to pay ¥1.1 million in damages for leaking information that led to the murder of a 33-year-old…
NM: City of Farmington recovering after SamSam ransomware attack
More entities are falling prey to SamSam ransomware. Hannah Grover reports: The city of Farmington is returning to normal after a variant of the ransomware known as SamSam shut down the computer systems. The virus encrypts files on a computer network or locks down the entire system. When people attempt to log on, they receive…
MailChimp Found Leaking Email Addresses
Tara Seals reports: MailChimp, the bulk email company responsible for sending millions of newsletters, promotional mail and other mass communiques every day, has been leaking respondents’ email addresses. Security researcher Terence Eden found what he termed “an annoying privacy violation,” adding that the issue can expose personal information. The issue is this: When a respondent…