While some ransomware threat actors claim that they will not attack medical entities, others have not made any such pledge. In “Without Undue Delay,” DataBreaches.net noted that Egregor ransomware threat actors had added Dyras Dental in Michigan to their leak site in September. As I reported in that paper: The data dumped by the attackers as…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Ransomware-as-a-service: The pandemic within a pandemic
Intel 471 released a new article today that is significant for shining some light into some otherwise murky areas. They write, in part: Intel 471 has been tracking over 25 different ransomware-as-a-service crews over the past year, ranging from well-known groups that have become synonymous with ransomware, to newly-formed variants that have risen from the…
Commentary: ‘You may be hacked’ and other things doctors should tell you
Maximilian Kiener is Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Oxford. And while I have been blogging about the need to promptly disclose to patients when patient data has been acquired or dumped by threat actors, Kiener has been writing about the need for doctors to expand our concept of what constitutes the kind…
Consumer Watchdog Hacks A Tesla to Prove Dangers of Wirelessly Connected Cars
Jamie Court reports: The nonprofit, nonpartisan Consumer Watchdog today released a video showing how a box it built with the help of technologists could hack into the wireless connection of a Tesla and take over the screen with a “This Tesla’s Been Hacked” message. The video can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/RgpmJ6OhPns The group said the demonstration…
Microsoft urges users to stop using phone-based multi-factor authentication
Catalin Cimpanu reports Microsoft is urging users to abandon telephone-based multi-factor authentication (MFA) solutions like one-time codes sent via SMS and voice calls and instead replace them with newer MFA technologies, like app-based authenticators and security keys. The warning comes from Alex Weinert, Director of Identity Security at Microsoft. For the past year, Weinert has been…
Biden Is Expected to Keep Scrutiny of Tech Front and Center
Cecilia Kang, David McCabe and Jack Nicas report: The tech industry had it easy under President Barack Obama. Regulators brought no major charges, executives rotated in and out of the administration, and efforts to strengthen privacy laws fizzled out. The industry will have it much harder under president-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Bipartisan support to…