Update: The Independent is reporting that there’s been a £1 million ransom demand attached to this incident. Five days later, the council’s database is still down, it seems. Alexander J. Martin reports: A 0-day security breach at Lincolnshire County Council has exposed locals’ medical records, addresses, and bank details, claimed an anonymous tipster, though the council denies…
Category: Government Sector
AE: Hacker embezzles almost Dhs8.4m
Ahmed Ghannam reports: The Criminal Court in Dubai looked into a case where an employee of a company was charged with accessing the system of the Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai and manipulating the fees imposed when issuing trade licences. He was also charged with forging government documents belonging to the DED through…
Update: Newburgh restores data deleted from cloud, but questions remain
Aha. Sometimes it pays to ask questions about backups. Yesterday, after reporting on a puzzling report out of Newburgh, NY, I was contacted by a friend who asked me if I would speak with the MidHudson News. I did, and suggested some questions they should be asking. Today, they report: One day after it was…
Vermont state employees fall for phishing email
Anne Galloway reports that at least 500 Vermont state employees fell for a phishing scam on Thursday that compromised at least 50 employees’ W-2 information. Galloway provides the text of the phishing email in her report. Had the employees checked the From address, they might have been suspicious that it wasn’t from a .gov address, and the…
New background check agency announced in wake of OPM hacks
It may go unnoticed while everyone focuses on the weather, but Greg Otto of FedScoop reports that The Obama administration will create a new office to conduct background checks on federal employees, in an effort to improve the security of personal information in the wake of the massive data breaches at the Office of Personnel Management. The formation of the National…
Hackers ‘Dox’ Miami Police Officers With Data Stolen From Government Database
Lorenzo Francesco-Bicchierai reports: A group of hackers has dumped the names, phone numbers and email addresses of more than 80 police officers from Miami, Florida, in what appears to be an attempt to “dox” the agents. The hackers appear to be loosely affiliated with the group of alleged teen hackers, known as “Crackas With Attitude”…