Mack DeGuerin reports: The U.S. says it’s punching back in the digital cold war over emerging technologies with a new “Disruptive Technology Strike Force.” “Our goal is simple but essential—to strike back against adversaries trying to siphon off our best technology,” a deputy attorney general said. The strike force, a joint initiative created by the Department of Justice…
Category: Of Note
Department of Education to Enforce Revised Cybersecurity Requirements and Expands Interpretation of “Third-Party Servicer” Definition
Duane Morris writes: The Department of Education has issued an electronic notice relating to the updated cybersecurity regulations published by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). On December 9, 2021, the FTC amended the Safeguards Rule under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). This comprehensive amendment updated data security requirements for financial institutions, including all Title IV institutions of higher…
U.K.: NHS call center advisor found guilty of accessing medical records illegally
From the ICO, this press release: A former 111 call centre advisor has been found guilty and fined for illegally accessing the medical records of a child and his family. Martin Swan, 56, from Pinner, London, worked as a service advisor at the NHS 111 call centre in Southall when he illegally accessed the records….
FBI says it has ‘contained’ cyber incident on bureau’s computer network
Evan Perez and Sean Lyngaas report: The FBI has been investigating and working to contain a malicious cyber incident on part of its computer network in recent days, according to people briefed on the matter. FBI officials believe the incident involved an FBI computer system used in investigations of images of child sexual exploitation, two…
Annual Report to Congress on Breaches of Unsecured Protected Health Information For Calendar Year 2021- HHS OCR
From their report: Summary OCR received 609 notifications of breaches affecting 500 or more individuals, representing a decrease of 7% from the number of reports received in calendar year 2020. These reported breaches affected a total of approximately 37,182,558 individuals. The most commonly reported category of breaches was hacking, and the largest breach of this…
New MortalKombat ransomware and Laplas Clipper malware threats deployed in financially motivated campaign
Chetan Raghuprasad writes: Since December 2022, Cisco Talos has been observing an unidentified actor deploying two relatively new threats, the recently discovered MortalKombat ransomware and a GO variant of the Laplas Clipper malware, to steal cryptocurrency from victims. Talos observed the actor scanning the internet for victim machines with an exposed remote desktop protocol (RDP)…