Shawn Snow reports: Roughly 21,426 people were impacted when an unencrypted email with an attachment containing personal confidential information was sent to the wrong email distribution list Monday morning. The compromised attachment included highly sensitive data such as truncated social security numbers, bank electronic funds transfer and bank routing numbers, truncated credit card information, mailing…
Category: Government Sector
U.S. intel: Russia compromised seven states prior to 2016 election
Cynthia McFadden, William M. Arkin, Kevin Monahan, and Ken Dilanian report: The U.S. intelligence community developed substantial evidence that state websites or voter registration systems in seven states were compromised by Russian-backed covert operatives prior to the 2016 election — but never told the states involved, according to multiple U.S. officials. Top-secret intelligence requested by…
Connecticut state agencies targeted in cyberattack
AP reports State officials say a weekend cyberattack targeted about 160 computers at a dozen Connecticut state agencies. A spokesman for the state Department of Administrative Services says the ransomware attack was first detected Friday and state computer experts worked over the weekend to contain it. Agency spokesman Jeffrey Beckham says the attack appeared to…
Understanding Data Breaches as National Security Threats
Susan Landau writes: For decades the theft of private individuals’ data has been treated as an annoyance. Activist state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission have pursued cases, but U.S. laws fail to treat theft of personal data as a serious crime in itself. The indictment detailing Russian activity during the 2016 presidential campaign…
NZ: Cryptolocker malware hits Inland Revenue, locks 3500 files
Rob O’Neill reports: Thousands of Inland Revenue files were locked up after New Zealand’s tax department became the target of a cryptolocking attack in November. IRD said that in addition to the phishing emails targeting customers, the department also regularly receives phishing emails attempting to obtain money or information or to compromise the Inland Revenue…
Parking Officer, City Employee Involved In Privacy Breach: Molloy
The province’s Privacy Commissioner has made a number of recommendations in light of a recent case involving a parking enforcement officer who was assaulted while on duty in December of 2017. Commissioner Donovan Molloy’s report says while the matter was reported to the RNC and the man’s superiors, he took matters a step further and…