Symantec has released a paper on a Chinese cyberespionage group that they call “Black Vine.” I’m not sure how the Chinese would feel about that name, but in any event, Symantec writes: In early 2014, Anthem was a victim of an attack that exposed 80 million patient records. The breach, which came to light in…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
A reminder to google your name and email addresses occasionally
In reading news yesterday morning, I stumbled across a question posted on StackExchange: I found my user details on already old, leaked account information list I came across an old (>3 years) accounts information list which has been leaked to the web. The list included thousands (>10.000) of account details from a service or services. Apparently…
43 million South Koreans had their medical information leaked
Over the weekend on PogoWasRight.org, I linked to an editorial from The Korea Herald about the sale of medical information of 43 million people (nearly 90% of the Korean population). The editorial began: A company specializing in developing medical fees settlement programs used by hospitals and the Korea Pharmaceutical Information Center — which distributed free pharmacy…
Researchers Hack Air-Gapped Computer With Simple Cell Phone
And another security bubble or delusion bursts. Kim Zetter reports: The most sensitive work environments, like nuclear power plants, demand the strictest security. Usually this is achieved by air-gapping computers from the Internet and preventing workers from inserting USB sticks into computers. When the work is classified or involves sensitive trade secrets, companies often also institute…
UK: Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust undertaking: was it really necessary?
Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust has had several breaches involving loss or theft of personal information. But it wasn’t the breaches per se that caught the attention of the Information Commissioner’s Office as much as the finding that the Trust was only requiring their employees to refresh Information Governance (IG) training every two years. As…
TV5Monde in chaos as data breach costs roll into the millions
Just because a hack is no longer in the news, it doesn’t mean it still isn’t having a major impact on its target. The TV5Monde hack was apparently much more damaging than some of us had imagined at the time. Doug Drinkwater reports: TV5Monde was very visibly hacked back in April when the French news channel, which…