Graham Cluley writes: A security researcher has revealed details of a flaw in Facebook Messenger that made it possible for “any website to expose who you have been messaging with.” Imperva’s Ron Masas, who in the past has identified a bug that allowed unauthorised websites to view Facebook users’ location histories, likes and interests, discovered…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
To protect the health and well-being of patients scheduled for surgery, Columbia Surgical Specialists paid ransom
DataBreaches.net has received a statement from Columbia Surgical Specialists in Spokane about the ransomware incident that they recently reported to HHS as impacting up to 400,000 patients. Subsequent and ongoing investigation suggests that the number affected may be substantially lower. According to the statement sent to this site, the practice became aware of the attack…
Marriott CEO apologizes for data breach, unsure if China responsible
David Shephardson reports: Marriott International Inc Chief Executive Arne Sorenson apologized on Thursday before a U.S. Senate panel for a massive data breach involving up to 383 million guests in its Starwood hotels reservation system and vowed to protect against future attacks. […] Committee Chairman Rob Portman noted that Starwood said it had discovered malware…
Should Companies Terminate Third Party Vendors That Cause A Data Breach?
Joseph Lazzarotti of Jackson Lewis writes: According to reports, bank customers in Australia (yes, data breach notification requirements exist down under) have been affected by “an industry-wide” data breach experienced by a third-party service provider to the banks – property valuation firm, LandMark White. As expected, the banks are investigating and in some cases notifying customers about…
Hacker group behind SingHealth data breach identified, targeted mainly Singapore firms
Eileen Yu reports: Hackers that compromised the data of 1.5 million SingHealth patients has been identified as a group that launched attacks against several businesses based in Singapore, including multinational companies with operations in the city-state. Dubbed Whitefly, the group has attacked organisations in healthcare, media, telecommunications, and engineering, and is likely part of a…
Update on Columbia Surgical Specialists of Spokane HIPAA incident affecting 400,000 patients
On February 18, 2019, Columbia Surgical Specialists of Spokane notified HHS of a breach impacting 400,000 patients. The incident was coded as a network/IT incident involving data on the network server. DataBreaches.net reached out to the entity for additional details concerning what we hypothesized was a ransomware attack. But despite two phone calls to the…