Mark Albert reports: The longest sustained cyberattack against election websites in America on Election Day did not affect any votes but caused disruptions to voters’ efforts to determine their polling locations and access other information, Michael Watson, Mississippi’s secretary of state, said in his first interview about the attack. Watson, the state’s top election administrator,…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Taking down a ransomware hacker
An FBI investigation into a criminal ransomware gang believed to be tied to Russia led to a Canadian government employee in Gatineau, the largest cryptocurrency seizure in Canadian history and hundreds of victims around the world. Roxanna Woloshyn, Marie-Maude Denis and Linda Guerriero report: In the early morning hours of Jan. 27, 2021, two police…
Manitoba’s healthcare privacy breach numbers ‘truly alarming’
Katrina Clarke reports: Manitoba hospital workers have breached patients’ privacy more than 1,000 times in the last three years — but how many were disciplined and what consequences they faced is unclear. It’s an issue one ethicist calls “alarming,” saying the public deserves to know more about workers snooping into sensitive files. Data obtained by…
Bug Bounties and Ransomware Demands: Storm Clouds Ahead for In-House Counsel
Michael Ward, Matthew Baker, and Jessica Wu of Baker Botts write about the conviction of Uber’s former security chief for felony violations of obstructing a Federal Trade Commission investigation and “misprision of felony” for failing to disclose a 2016 data breach. They then discuss issues for in-house counsel that the case raises, beginning with: Action…
New Research Says a Third of Australians Victims of Data Breaches
Phil Mercer reports: New research released Tuesday has found that a third of Australian adults have been victims of data breaches in the last year. Analysis by the Australian National University shows that cyberattacks are one of the fastest growing types of crime in the country. The survey of almost 3,500 Australian adults during October…
Update to the EncroChat data breach that exposed the criminal underworld and how a French court’s decision could undo months of police work
Allison Morris reports: In June, 2020, the criminal underworld was rocked after one short message sent hitmen, drug dealers and extortionists on a scramble to cover their tracks. The military-grade encrypted communications system EncroChat, used by organised criminals across Europe and the Middle East, had been breached by the French intelligence services. Read more at…