Abby Sewell reports that Los Angeles County Department of Health Services computers were hit with a ransomware attack just days after a similar attack on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. The attack was on a smaller scale and the county did not pay any ransom. Nor, it seems, did they need to. Spokesman Michael Wilson said the agency…
Category: Government Sector
Federal Times obtained and analyzed 26,381 security incidents reported by HHS components over a 30-month period
Kudos to Federal Times, who obtained a tremendous amount of data from HHS about security incidents involving their component systems. Aaron Boyd reports on their analysis of data, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information request. The analyses look at types of attacks by components of HHS. Here’s some of their analysis and findings: The records…
IRS “Get Transcript” breach much bigger than first thought – now more than 700K victims
Andrew Taylor of AP reports: The IRS says the number of taxpayers whose tax information may have been stolen by computer hackers now exceeds 700,000 — more than double the agency’s previous estimate. The tax collecting agency says 390,000 more taxpayer accounts may have compromised than the 334,000 it warned about a year and a…
Anonymous: Turkish government cracks down on Twitter ‘hacktivists’ over leak of police data
Jason Murdock reports: The Turkish government has retaliated against a number of Twitter profiles that posted links to a compromised database stolen from a national police server. The users, which includes two Anonymous-affiliated accounts, sent out notifications to millions of followers containing a direct link to a huge 17.8GB-sized trove of sensitive data earlier this month. One…
Three associated with “Anonymous” on trial in Paris for hacking police union
There’s a follow-up on a hacking case in France that I didn’t report on at the time. Oh well…. thankfully, Catalin Cimpanu has the details: Three hackers who were associated with the Anonymous movement are on trial in Paris, France, after hacking a French police union’s website and dumping the data of 541 police officers…
UK: Brighton officer sacked for using police computers to stalk ex-wife and girlfriend
Thanks to the U.K. reader who sent along the link to this story. Frank Le Duc reports: A Brighton police officer has been sacked for using the force’s computer systems to stalk his ex-wife and girlfriend, even telling one of the women where she had been. PC Forrest Knight, who had worked in the Operations…