Debra Cassens Weiss reports: A former Dentons litigation associate in Los Angeles has been charged with extortion for allegedly threatening to leak sensitive law firm documents to the blog Above the Law unless his demands were met. Former associate Michael Potere, 32, is accused of demanding that the law firm pay him $210,000 and give…
Category: U.S.
So many notifications due to ransomware, but are these really necessary?
Another entity has recently notified patients whose protected health information was on a server infected with ransomware. Once again, even though investigation turned up no evidence that any patient’s PHI was actually accessed or exfiltrated, entities are notifying – on the side of caution and/or because HHS requires them to in the absence of firm…
Cove Family & Sports Medicine recovers from ransomware, but loses some data
There are different metrics for describing the impact of a breach, but one of the ones I use in my subjective system is whether patient data that might be needed for care have been lost, stolen, or corrupted. In June, there were a lot of data breaches or security incidents and many involved ransomware. One…
Trump Hotels notifies some guests of payment card breach that began in 2016
Trump Hotels is sending out data breach notification letters to hotel guests after a service provider notified them of a breach that began in August 2016 but was only detected this year. In their letter, they explain: We are writing to you because of an incident involving unauthorized access to guest information associated with your…
Smyrna Police employee arrested for stealing personal information
Jessica Noll and Faith Abubey report: A police department’s crime analyst in Cobb County was charged with 31 counts of computer theft. Shannon Pope, a 17-year veteran of the Smyrna Police Department, posted bond at $3,500 after being arrested on June 21. Pope, 38, stole information without authorization including driver’s licenses and mobile data of…
‘Crackas’ Hacker Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison
AP reports: A North Carolina man has been sentenced to two years in prison in connection with a series of computer hacks that targeted former CIA Director John Brennan and other government officials. Twenty-three-year-old Andrew Otto Boggs of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, known online as “INCURSIO,” pleaded guilty earlier this year to unauthorized computer access…