Benjamin Freed reports: The Colorado Department of Transportation joined the ranks of dozens of other U.S. government entities affected by the SamSam ransomware virus when it was infected with the malware in February 2018. While the incident was costly — nearly 2,000 computers, servers and network devices were encrypted, while the state spent about $1.5…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
UK hacking powers can be challenged in court, judge rules
Charlie Osborne reports: A five-year court battle in the United Kingdom has come to an end with the UK Supreme Court ruling that the UK’s spy agencies and their hacking activities can be made subject to court challenges. On Wednesday, the court ruled that the GCHQ’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) is subject to judicial review…
Two years after WannaCry, a million computers remain at risk
Zack Whittaker reports that two years after WannaCry ransomware started rapidly spreading around the world causing chaos, the threat posed by leaked NSA tools remains a concern: As many as 1.7 million internet-connected endpoints are still vulnerable to the exploits, according to the latest data. Data generated by Shodan, a search engine for exposed databases…
Your most sensitive data is likely exposed online. These people try to find it
Laura Huatala has a nice piece about those who hunt for leaking databases, find them, and then try to get companies to secure them. I am honored to have been included in her CNET report with the likes of Chris Vickery, Justin Paine, and Bob Diachenko.
Equifax Says Cybersecurity Breach Has Cost $1.4 Billion
Emma Hurt reports: Equifax, the Atlanta credit bureau, revealed in its earnings release Friday that dealing with its 2017 cybersecurity incident has cost about $1.4 billion plus legal fees. A year and a half ago, the company, which gathers consumers’ credit histories, revealed a massive security breach compromised the personal information of about 150 million…
April sets new record for number of health data breaches and incidents (updated)
We’ve seen a record number of incidents reported in the first quarter of 2019, and it’s not getting any better in the healthcare sector. Whether you use HHS’s public breach tool, as Modern Healthcare does, or the system DataBreaches.net and Protenus, Inc. use to track U.S. breaches involving medical or health data, April set a…