Josh Hicks reports: The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint calling on the U.S. Postal Service to negotiate with employee groups over how quickly to tell personnel about cyber attacks that affect their personal data. The March 31 action came in response to allegations that the agency violated federal labor law by not…
Category: Government Sector
AU: Melbourne hacker admits to encouraging Indonesian hackers to DDoS Australian government websites
Steve Butcher reports that Mathew John Hutchison, age 21, pleaded guilty to charges of inciting others to commit an offense and to possessing a prohibited weapon. Hutchison’s criminal charges resulted from his engagement with Indonesian hackers who were attacking Australian sites in retaliation for revelations in documents leaked by Edward Snowden that Australia had spied on Indonesia. Hutchison…
How the U.S. thinks Russians hacked the White House
Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz report: Russian hackers behind the damaging cyber intrusion of the State Department in recent months used that perch to penetrate sensitive parts of the White House computer system, according to U.S. officials briefed on the investigation. While the White House has said the breach only ever affected an unclassified system, that description…
Tewskbury Police Pay Ransom After CryptoLocker Lockup
Jayne W. Miller reports that when Tewksbury Police discovered that the department’s network had been locked up by CryptoLocker last December, the town decided to pay the $500 bitcoin ransom. Of course, that’s exactly what experts recommend folks NOT do, as it only encourages more attacks on others, but hey, this is the same town that just…
CA: Email error exposes 845 Tulare County patients’ email addresses.
The Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency (HHSA) has announced a potential breach involving the protected health information of 845 patients seen at the Visalia and Farmersville clinics who use the online Patient Portal. The potential breach occurred on March 19, 2015, when an employee sent an email and neglected to encrypt and blind…
Virginia Beach reports bank security breach
Kathy Hieatt reports: The city is investigating a security breach into its bank accounts, including at least one with more than $50 million, according to a news release this afternoon. Two city employees who are not with the Treasurer’s Office had access to the city’s Bank of America checking accounts from home, according to the…