Adam Bannister reports: New Zealand’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has observed a 15% year-on-year jump in cyber-attacks against the country’s “nationally significant” organizations. More than 400 such incidents were recorded between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, up from 352 a year earlier, according to the NCSC’s latest annual threat report, published today (November…
Category: Government Sector
More Accusations About a Canadian Hacker in the Wake of a Hoax Email from FBI Portal
The email in my inbox on Friday night had the subject line, “Hey sexy,” and appeared to come from “[email protected]” <[email protected]>. Under normal circumstances, I would have just sent it to trash, but the Twitter user known to me as “Pompompurin,” had alerted me to check my email for what he described as a funny…
Manitoba sued over privacy breach involving 9,000 children
Dean Pritchard reports an update to a previously disclosed breach: A class-action lawsuit will proceed against the province after confidential information about nearly 9,000 children with disabilities was mistakenly sent to agencies that provide services to them and community advocates. An email notice was delivered to potential claimants this week notifying them about the class…
Queensland water supplier Sunwater targeted by hackers in months-long undetected cyber security breach
Rory Callinan reports: Queensland’s largest regional water supplier, Sunwater, says it was targeted by hackers in a cyber security breach that went undetected for nine months. It has been revealed that hackers left suspicious files on a webserver to redirect visitor traffic to an online video platform last year. Sunwater admitted the cyber breach after the tabling…
N.L. patient, employee data stolen in health-care cyberattack
Alex Kennedy reports: Hackers stole personal information connected to both patients and employees in the Eastern Health and Labrador-Grenfell Health regions of Newfoundland and Labrador’s health-care system as part of a recent cyberattack, according to officials. The information was accessed through the province’s Meditech data repository, which includes a patient information database as well as…
Activists leak 600 hours of mostly Dallas police helicopter footage after city’s 22 terabyte loss of criminal case data
David Lee reports: Data transparency activists released a massive 600-hour leak of mostly Dallas Police Department helicopter footage, raising more questions about the city’s data security protocols three months after DPD admitted to a 22-terabyte deletion of case data that resulted in the release of criminal defendants awaiting trial. Distributed Denial of Secrets — a…