Justin Murphy reports: Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called on Congress and the FBI on Wednesday to help school districts and other local government bodies threatened by increasingly common and sophisticated cyberattacks. The issue has put school districts across New York on guard, particularly after the Syracuse City School District was hit with ransomware this year. The district paid a $50,000…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Gootkit malware crew left their database exposed online without a password
Catalin Cimpanu reports: The criminal gang behind the Gootkit malware has made the same mistake that thousands of legitimate companies have made before them in the past years — they left MongoDB databases connected to the internet without a password. The leak allowed security researcher Bob Diachenko to download all group’s data and gain an…
The New Target That Enables Ransomware Hackers to Paralyze Dozens of Towns and Businesses at Once
Renee Dudley of ProPublica reports: On July 3, employees at Arbor Dental in Longview, Washington, noticed glitches in their computers and couldn’t view X-rays. Arbor was one of dozens of dental clinics in Oregon and Washington stymied by a ransomware attack that disrupted their business and blocked access to patients’ records. But the hackers didn’t…
Discqus and Kickstarter hacker warns against password reuse
Catalin Cimpanu reports: A hacker who made a fortune by breaking into people’s accounts and posting spam on their behalf is now warning users against password reuse. Kyle Milliken, a 29-year-old Arkansas man, was released last week from a federal work camp. He served 17 months for hacking into the servers of several companies and…
British Airways ‘tries to limit £3billion payout over data breach that hit more than 500,000 customers by asking victims to claim within 17 weeks’
Mark Duell reports: British Airways was today accused of trying to limit a potential £3billion payout over the data breach that saw cyber-hackers steal more than 500,000 customers’ details. The airline has applied to launch its own class action for victims of the hack – but with the condition that claimants must join within just…
Phishing attacks on Mac users doubling; here’s what to watch for
Ben Lovejoy reports: Phishing attacks reaching macOS users look set to more than double this year, with emails specifically claiming to be from Apple growing at 30%-40% per year. […] Kaspersky says that its figures reflect only attacks on Macs running its own security software — many of which are in corporate environments — suggesting…