Steve Thompson reports: State health workers still often can’t use computers, access shared drives and get to important data a month after a cyberattack crippled Maryland’s health department, the head of a union representing agency employees said Friday. They’ve received little information about what’s going on and are preparing for the possibility that their systems could remain…
Category: Of Note
FBI: Hackers use BadUSB to target defense firms with ransomware
Sergiu Gatlan reports: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned US companies in a recently updated flash alert that the financially motivated FIN7 cybercriminal group targeted the US defense industry with packages containing malicious USB devices to deploy ransomware. The attackers mailed packages containing ‘BadUSB’ or ‘Bad Beetle USB’ devices with the LilyGO logo, commonly…
Albania arrests four over massive personal data leak
Maria Daisy reports: Prosecutors in Albania arrested four people on Friday for stealing the personal data of more than 630,000 people which then ended up in the public domain, including salary figures and car registrations. Two of the arrested men were IT technicians working at the state tax office and two others, who had bought…
Why Canadian cyber insurance companies are requiring businesses to use multi-factor authentication
Alyssa DiSabatino reports: Canadian cyber insurance companies are now requiring businesses to offer multi-factor authentication (MFA) and have cybercrime/data breach response plans in place before qualifying for coverage. Prudent, since cybercrimes and ransomware attacks are on the rise – Canadians have lost $4.9 billion to ransomware attacks in the last year. Read more at Canadian…
FinalSite ransomware attack shuts down thousands of school websites
Lawrence Abrams reports: FinalSite, a leading school website services provider, has suffered a ransomware attack disrupting access to websites for thousands of schools worldwide. FinalSite is a software as a service (SaaS) provider that offers website design, hosting, and content management solutions for K-12 school districts and universities. FinalSite claims to provide solutions for over 8,000 schools and…
FTC Finalizes Order with Mortgage Analytics Firm, Requiring it to Strengthen Security Safeguards, Increase Oversight of Vendors
In December, 2020, the FTC announced a proposed settlement with Texas-based Ascension Data & Analytics after a security breach involving one of its vendors resulted in the exposure of, and unauthorized access to, consumers’ mortgage applications. One year later, the settlement received final approval, as the FTC announced on December 22: The Federal Trade Commission…