Lillian Reed reports: Baltimore County school officials estimate the ransomware attack in November will cost the system at least $7.7 million, nearing what Baltimore City spent following a similar attack in 2019. The estimated costs cover a wide range of programs, services, trainings and licenses that helped Maryland’s third-largest school system respond to and recover…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Lewd Phishing Lures Aimed at Business Explode
Socially engineered BEC attacks using X-rated material spike 974 percent. Becky Bracken reports: Attackers have amped up their use of X-rated phishing lures in business email compromise (BEC) attacks. A new report found a stunning 974-percent spike in social-engineering scams involving suggestive materials, usually aimed at male-sounding names within a company. The Threat Intelligence team…
Security flaws found in Samsung’s stock mobile apps
Zack Whittaker reports: A mobile security startup has found seven security flaws in Samsung’s pre-installed mobile apps, which it says if abused could have allowed attackers broad access to a victim’s personal data. Oversecured said the vulnerabilities were found in several apps and components bundled with Samsung phones and tablets. Oversecured founder Sergey Toshin told…
Do We Even Need the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (CFAA)?–Van Buren v. US
Eric Goldman writes: Last week, the Supreme Court decided Van Buren v. US. Many hoped the decision would clarify how owners can delimit third-party usage of their computer resources for purposes of the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (CFAA). Disappointingly, the court explicitly punted on that key question, though the decision probably will prompt lower…
Italy Moves to Boost Cybersecurity With New Unit Under Draghi
Chiara Albanese reports: Italy’s government is speeding up plans to create a new cybersecurity unit directly under Prime Minister Mario Draghi to shield the country’s digital network from criminal attacks. The new unit will set centralized strategy for cybersecurity and be managed by a committee based in the prime minister’s office, according to a draft…
South Korea’s data watchdog barks warnings at Microsoft and five local firms
Laura Dobberstein reports: Microsoft and five other companies have received fines totaling US$75K from South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), for running afoul of local data protection laws. The Commission fined Microsoft 16.4 million won (US$14,700) for failing to have protective measures on administrative accounts that led to the leak of over 119,000 email accounts, 144…