Andrew Eversden has an update on a breach previously noted on this site: A breach of a system hosted by the Defense Information Systems Agency, the Department of Defense’s primary IT support agency, affected “approximately 200,000” users after a malicious actor may have gained access to names and Social Security numbers, according to a Pentagon…
Category: Government Sector
Defense Information Systems Agency discloses breach
As posted by @bitsdigits on Twitter tonight: Just when you think the US Federal and Intelligence agencies were done being breached. This happens. DISA, the Defense Information Systems Administration has suffered a compromise of epic proportions. But here’s a notification for your troubles. The notification, dated February 11 and signed by Roger S. Greenwell,…
Laptops are still being stolen from unattended vehicles. So why are they still unencrypted?
Today’s somewhat infuriating breach notification is from the city of Banos, California. On or before January 31, the city notified people who had personal information on a laptop that was stolen from an employee’s vehicle. The laptop was password-protected but unencrypted, and the city acknowledges that someone could remove data from the hard drive, although…
Information about 69,000 Phoenix pay system victims sent in error
Catharine Tunney reports: More than 69,000 public servants caught up in the Phoenix pay system debacle are now victims of a privacy breach after their personal information was accidentally emailed to the wrong people, says Public Services and Procurement Canada. The problem-plagued electronic payroll system has improperly paid tens of thousands of public servants since its launch…
Israel says Hamas used ‘attractive’ women in thwarted cyberattack
AFP reports: Israel’s military said on Sunday it had thwarted an attempted malware attack by Hamas that sought to gain access to soldiers’ mobile phones by using seductive pictures of young women. The phones of a few dozen soldiers were affected, but the military “does not assess that there has been a substantial breach of…
1 in 6 Massachusetts Communities Hit by ‘Ransomware’ Attacks
Ryan Kath and Jim Haddadin report: Inside the Bay State, a handful of attacks against cities and towns have garnered widespread attention, though the problem may be more prevalent than many imagine. Records obtained by the NBC10 Boston Investigators show dozens of Massachusetts communities have quietly negotiated ransomware attacks, sometimes taking days or weeks to…