P. H. Madore reports: Boston public defenders suffered a ransomware attack some weeks back but have chosen not to send the bitcoin demanded by the attacker. Instead, they decided to use back-ups to restore services. The Committee oversees public defenders in Boston. According to the Boston Globe, that decision has meant a “weekslong slowdown” that…
Category: Breach Incidents
US Healthcare institutions are vulnerable to phishing attacks: Survey
CISOMag reports on a recent survey and report, Assessment of Employee Susceptibility to Phishing Attacks at US Health Care Institutions, authored by Dr. William Gordon and colleagues. Not surprisingly, the survey found that the healthcare sector was susceptible to phishing attacks. How susceptible, you wonder? William specified that when the researchers sent simulated phishing emails,…
NC: Pasquotank-Camden EMS notifies 40,000 after hacking incident
On February 25, Pasquotank-Camden Emergency Medical Service in North Carolina reported a breach to HHS that affected 20,420 patients. A notification sent to the Vermont Attorney General’s Office explained that sometime in late December, 2018, the county became aware of an unauthorized intrusion from outside of the U.S. Investigation revealed that the intruder was able…
MyEquifax.com Bypasses Credit Freeze PIN
Brian Krebs reports: Most people who have frozen their credit files with Equifax have been issued a numeric Personal Identification Number (PIN) which is supposed to be required before a freeze can be lifted or thawed. Unfortunately, if you don’t already have an account at the credit bureau’s new myEquifax portal, it may be simple…
To protect the health and well-being of patients scheduled for surgery, Columbia Surgical Specialists paid ransom
DataBreaches.net has received a statement from Columbia Surgical Specialists in Spokane about the ransomware incident that they recently reported to HHS as impacting up to 400,000 patients. Subsequent and ongoing investigation suggests that the number affected may be substantially lower. According to the statement sent to this site, the practice became aware of the attack…
Payment card dumps on dark web indicate compromise at Meezan Bank — researchers
In October, 2015, The Daily Times reported: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has directed the banks to report in details about all established security breaches, its analysis and its designated payment systems department, on quarterly basis to explain the impact of security breaches on institution’s business, systems, applications and customers. The directives were issued…