NewsNow reports: A company that offers psychotherapy to thousands of patients across Finland says it’s been the victim of a data breach, with the personal information of customers held for ransom. Vastaamo, which sees patients in 20 cities including Helsinki, Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Pori, Turku and Tampere, says “an unknown hostile party” got in touch with them…
Category: Of Note
NSA Steps Out of Shadows to Spotlight Where China Hackers Prowl
William Turton reports: The U.S. National Security Agency detailed 25 cyber vulnerabilities frequently used by Chinese state-sponsored hackers in an effort to alert computer security officials to update their systems. Most of the vulnerabilities “can be exploited to gain initial access to victim networks using products that are directly accessible from the internet and act…
Misconfigured cloud storage bucket exposed Pfizer drug safety-related reports — researchers
For lo, these many years, DataBreaches.net has been reminding everyone that not all leaks or breaches involving medical or sensitive personal health information are covered by HIPAA. Today’s story is a reminder of that. vpnMentor recently contacted DataBreaches.net about a leak their research team, led by Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, had discovered. The leak…
Six Russian GRU Officers Charged in Connection with Worldwide Deployment of Destructive Malware and Other Disruptive Actions in Cyberspace
From the U.S. Department of Justice yesterday: On Oct. 15, 2020, a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh returned an indictment charging six computer hackers, all of whom were residents and nationals of the Russian Federation (Russia) and officers in Unit 74455 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a military intelligence agency of the General Staff…
Hackers Smell Blood as Schools Grapple With Virtual Instruction
David Uberti reports that it’s been a rough school year already in terms of cybersecurity. And he wisely reached out to Doug Levin for his input. Doug created and maintains a wonderful resource — the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center that maps reports in k-12 from around the country. At least 289 districts across the U.S….
California AG Settlement Suggests Privacy and Security Practices of Digital Health Apps May Provide Fertile Ground for Enforcement Activity
Libbie Canter, Anna D. Kraus, and Rebecca Yergin of Covington & Burling write: California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (“AG”) announced in September a settlement against Glow, Inc., resolving allegations that the fertility app had “expose[d] millions of women’s personal and medical information.” In the complaint, the AG alleged violations of certain state consumer protection and privacy laws, stemming from privacy…