HIPAA Journal has a piece highlighting some findings from Crowdstrike’s 2021 report. It begins: CrowdStrike has released its annual threat report which shows there was a major increase in data leaks following ransomware attacks in 2021, rising 82% from 2020. CrowdStrike observed 2,686 ransomware attacks in 2021 compared to 1,474 in 2020. There were more…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
This site’s new “No help for you” policy
From the “Yes-I’m-grumpy-but-you-earned-it Department:” Over the years, mainstream journalists have reached out to me for information related to breach stories they were developing, and I generally tried to help them. In some cases, that might involve a few phone calls. In other cases, it might be an hour or more of my time on the…
Elephant Beetle: Stealthy Hacker Group Stole Millions Undetected
Damir Mujezinovic reports: Israeli cybersecurity firm Sygnia released a report in January 2022 revealing that a hacker group dubbed Elephant Beetle siphoned off millions from businesses in the financial sector in Latin America. […] To carry out its Java-based attacks, Elephant Beetle uses a wide arsenal of more than 80 unique tools and scripts, the researchers wrote…
Iranian hackers behind biggest ransomware attacks of 2021: Report
Shouvik Das reports: Iranian hackers used ransomware tools the most in 2021 to steal data and blackmail users and companies, while hackers from China were the biggest exploiters of software vulnerabilities around the world in the same period, reveals a new report from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Iran-based hacker groups, according to the report released on…
HHS Cybersecurity Program: Electronic Medical Records in Healthcare
HHS has published a new cybersecurity threat brief, available for download on their site. The topics include: • What Is an EMR, and How Is It Used in Healthcare? • Top EHR Software Used in Hospitals • Benefits & Risks of Using EMR/HER • Why EMRs/EHRs Are Valuable to Cyber Attackers • How Are EMR/EHRs…
TCEA 2022: One School District Shares What Not to Do to Prevent a Ransomware Attack
Tasshi Rowe reports: “It’s like your home was robbed, and there’s nothing you can do about it. We had 800 employees and 5,200 kids, and everybody is shut down,” said Julie Gauthier. The deputy superintendent of Port Neches-Groves Independent School District in southeast Texas explained to a room full of TCEA attendees in Dallas what it…