Eric Besson reports: Investigators are trying to determine whether personal information — including Social Security numbers — for an estimated 19,000 Arkansas job seekers was stolen after a virus was detected in a statewide database, a government spokesman said. Arkansas Department Workforce Services spokesman Steve Guntharp said Thursday that it was not immediately clear whether…
Category: Malware
Metropolitan Urology Group Notifies Almost 18,000 Patients of Ransomware Attack That Exposed PHI
As seen on the group’s web site: On January 10, 2017, Metropolitan Urology Group (MUG) was made aware that a ransomware attack that occurred on November 28, 2016 exposed certain patient health information to the hackers who infected two MUG servers with the ransomware virus. MUG has been working with a premier, international information technology…
Russian Hacker “Kolypto” Who Worked on Citadel Trojan Extradited to the US
Catalin Cimpanu reports: Yesterday, a Russian national accused of helping develop the Citadel banking trojan was arraigned in front of a US judge for the first time, after being extradited from Fredrikstad, Norway. The man’s name is Mark Vartanyan, 28, known online as Kolypto. According to US authorities, Vartanyan allegedly developed, improved and maintained the…
Court blocks American from suing Ethiopia for infecting his computer
John Ribeiro reports: An appeals court has barred an Ethiopian-born U.S. citizen from filing a civil suit against the African country, which allegedly infected his computer with spyware and monitored his communications. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday that foreign states are immune from suit in a U.S. court unless…
City erases, re-installs server after ransomware attack
Scott Liles reports: A cyber attack on the server of the Mountain Home Water Department led to the city refusing to pay a ransom and wiping the machine, Water Department Director Alma Clark said. The server was re-installed from a backup created the night before and no information was lost or stolen, Baxter County Computer Services…
Veridian Credit Union sues Eddie Bauer for failing to prevent data breach
Matt Day reports that another retailer has been sued by financial institutions hoping to recover their costs of a breach. Veridian Credit Union filed suit, seeking class-action status, in Seattle federal court this week. The complaint alleges negligence on the retailer’s part and seeks to compensate financial institutions for costs related to reissuing stolen credit and…