The government issued a warning this week reminding people that threat actors are likely to attack when entities are short-staffed due to weekends or holidays. Brett Callow posted an interesting graphic on Twitter that may help drive that point home: “What did you do last weekend, Mrs Ransomware Criminal?” “Oh, not much. I was busy…
Author: Dissent
Juniper Breach Mystery Starts to Clear With New Details on Hackers and U.S. Role
Jordan Robertson reports: Days before Christmas in 2015, Juniper Networks Inc. alerted users that it had been breached. In a brief statement, the company said it had discovered “unauthorized code” in one of its network security products, allowing hackers to decipher encrypted communications and gain high-level access to customers’ computer systems. Further details were scant,…
Town of Deerfield offering credit monitoring after data breach potentially exposed more than 8,100 residents’ info
Chris Larabee reports: An unauthorized third party viewed or acquired the personal information of several residents in a March 25 data breach. Springbrook Software, Deerfield’s data storage provider, notified the town of the incident after it completed an investigation May 6 and the town made a formal announcement Aug. 31 after residents received notification of the breach. Town…
Dallas Independent School District reveals breach, but details are still missing
As seen on their web site: Information on Dallas ISD data security incident The Dallas Independent School District recently received notice of a data security incident involving the district’s electronic records that may affect former and current students, alumni, parents, and district employees. The confidentiality, privacy, and security of information in our care is one…
US farm loses $9 million in the aftermath of a ransomware attack
Catalin Cimpanu reports: A US farm lost a whopping $9 million due to a temporary shutdown of its farming operations following a ransomware attack earlier this year; the FBI said this week. The incident, which took place in January 2021 after hackers gained access to the farm’s internal network through compromised admin credentials, is part…
Audit of the Department of Defense’s Controls on Health Information of Well-Known Department of Defense Personnel (DODIG-2021-106)
Summary from the OIG: Objective The objective of this audit was to determine whether the DoD effectively controlled access to health information of well-known DoD personnel. Background The DoD maintains millions of electronic health records on its DoD beneficiaries, [REDACTED] DoD personnel who are granted access to health information to perform their official duties…