Organized crews of cybercriminals that attacked health care organizations and other critical services with ransomware this month kept their access to victims’ networks even after ransoms were paid, new research released by Microsoft Corp. says. In a blog post published Tuesday, Microsoft’s Threat Protection Intelligence Team said it had identified “dozens” of ransomware attacks in the…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
U.S. Supreme Court Will Finally Weigh in on Scope of CFAA
Jason C. Gavejian, Joseph J. Lazzarotti and Maya Atrakchi of JacksonLewis write: The United States Supreme Court recently granted a petition for certiorari in Van Buren v. United States addressing the issue of whether it is a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) when an individual who is authorized to access information on a computer, accesses the same…
Data Breach Settlement Calls for Enhanced Security Measures
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee reports: A federal court recently granted final approval for an $8.9 million settlement of a class action lawsuit against Banner Health stemming from a 2016 data breach. The settlement spells out steps the Phoenix-based organization must take to improve information security. […] The amount that Banner Health has agreed to spend in…
Unusual New Ransomware Does Not Demand Cryptocurrency
Jeff Francis reports: The last few years have seen ransomware attacks increase in frequency. Cities, businesses, schools, and even health care facilities have been targeted. A ransom in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency is usually demanded by the hackers, but a new malware is taking a different tack and not asking for crypto at all. The new ransomware, called Black…
Mercy Health says nurse was fired for violating privacy of multiple patients not for talking to the media
13ABC reports: Mercy Health is responding to claims made by a fired RN that his termination was retaliation from the hospital after he raised safety concerns with local media. The dispute between a fired Hackley Hospital RN, the Michigan Nurses Association and Mercy Health continues to unfold with the latest response coming from the hospital….
GAO wants four agencies to up their cybersecurity game by this fall
Andrew Eversden reported: Four Cabinet-level agencies are working to finalize risk-management strategies and improve internal cybersecurity coordination by this fall at the behest of the Government Accountability Office, according to new reports released by the watchdog this month. According to the “priority open recommendations” reports, which detail the GAO’s top unimplemented recommendations to an agency,…