Oh, this is a bit different. Joe Tidy of BBC reports that BBC got an anonymous tipoff about NetWalker’s ransomware negotiations with the University of California San Francisco and was able to spectate the chat negotiations. BBC’s report includes snippets of the negotiations such as when the uni counter-offered $780,000 to the threat actors’ $3…
Category: U.S.
UnityPoint Health Reaches $2.8M Settlement Over 2018 Data Breach
There’s an update to the litigation stemming from two UnityPoint Health phishing incidents that were discovered within months of each other in 2018. Part of the lawsuit was thrown out in 2019, but negligence claims were allowed to go forward. Not surprisingly, that seemed to result in a settlement. Jessica Davis reports: Iowa Health System,…
New Ransom X Ransomware used in Texas TxDOT cyberattack
Lawrence Abrams reports: A new ransomware called Ransom X is being actively used in human-operated and targeted attacks against government agencies and enterprises. May 2020 was not a good month for Texas as both the Texas Courts and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) were hit with ransomware attacks. At the time of the attacks, it was not known…
Louis mayor slammed for broadcasting names, addresses of ‘defund the police’ supporters
Nicole Acevedo reports: The mayor of St. Louis is facing backlash for reading aloud during a public briefing the full names and street addresses of protesters who are calling on the city to defund the police department. […] As of Saturday, at least 15,000 people had signed a Change.org petition calling for Krewson’s resignation, contending that she…
Maine’s fraud investigations have derailed some Mainers’ federal unemployment benefits
Peter McGuire reports: The effort to root out identity fraud in Maine’s unemployment insurance system has delayed establishing federal programs to aid jobless Mainers. From the week ending May 30 to the week ending June 20, the Maine Department of Labor canceled roughly 23,900 initial claims and 41,000 weekly certifications that were determined to be…
NYS: Comptroller’s audits continue: Urban Choice Charter School
For a number of years now, I’ve noted NYS comptroller audits of school districts when it comes to IT and infosecurity. Here’s one that was recently released concerning Urban Choice Charter School in Rochester: Issued Date June 12, 2020 Audit Objective Determine whether the Board and School officials ensured information technology (IT) assets were safeguarded….