Jack Sandlin reports: Computer hackers infected the Valley Springs School District‘s computer system with malicious software Thursday, locking access and demanding a ransom to restore its files and programs. The hackers demanded a payment of 7,000 British pounds — about $8,500 U.S. dollars — from the school district, Superintendent Judy Green said Friday. The hackers…
Category: U.S.
IN: Little Red Door Cancer Services of East Central Indiana hacked by TheDarkOverlord (CORRECTED AND UPDATED)
CORRECTION: On January 17, DataBreaches.net learned that although this site accurately reported on statements made by Aimee Fant, Executive Director of Little Red Door Cancer Services of East Central Indiana (LRD) in an internal email to those involved in addressing a hack by TheDarkOverlord, the director’s statements to her staff and colleagues allegedly contained errors or somewhat misleading explanations….
MA: Dracut schools employee data hacked after employee falls for phishing attempt
Employees of Dracut Public Schools in Massachusetts weren’t as fortunate as those at Kanawha County Schools in West Virginia. Rick Sobey and Todd Feathers report that current and former employees’ personal information, including SSN, was acquired by a hacker after an employee fell for what the district describes as a “sophisticated phishing scheme.” They did not report…
2016: Healthcare data breaches in review, Part 1
There were a number of year-in-review analyses for the healthcare sector, but now Protenus has released its report, which is based on analyses of 450 U.S. incidents first disclosed in 2016. The incidents were compiled by DataBreaches.net, who also provided some of the analyses. While some media outlets still headline external hacks where massive numbers of records…
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Medical Group notify parents of laptop theft
On December 21, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Medical Group learned that a laptop had been stolen from a locked car of one of the physicians. The laptop, which contained minor children’s protected health information, was unencrypted. According to a notification letter dated January 13, a copy of which was…
Student Hacker Faces 10 Years in Prison For Spyware That Hit 16,000 Computers
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai reports: A 21-year-old from Virginia plead guilty on Friday to writing and selling custom spyware designed to monitor a victim’s keystrokes. Zachary Shames, from Great Falls, Virginia, wrote a keylogger, malware designed to record every keystroke on a computer, and sold it to more than 3,000 people who infected more than 16,000 victims…