On January 3, the U.S. announced the successful assassination of Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s top general. Dire warnings about retaliation immediately appeared in the news, and it wasn’t long before we began to see headlines claiming that Iran had launched cyberattacks on the U.S. But were these really state actors or sophisticated actors, or or were…
Category: Of Note
FBI seizes WeLeakInfo, a website that sold access breached data
Catalin Cimpanu reports: US authorities have seized this week the domain of WeLeakInfo.com, an online service that for the past three years has been selling access to data hacked from other websites. The website provided access to people’s cleartext passwords, allowing hackers to purchase a subscription on the site and gain access to billions of user…
Washington State Attorney General’s Office 2019 Data Breach Report
For those who may not know, Washington State produces its own data breach report annually. Here’s a snippet from their report: In 2019, the total number of breaches reported to our office increased by nearly 20%, with just over 70% resulting from a malicious cyberattack. Yep, the percentage increase in number of incidents/reports sounds about…
New and improved FTC data security orders: Better guidance for companies, better protection for consumers
I held off on posting this one as so many people need a bit more time to get back into the swing of things after the holidays. Andrew Smith, Director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, posted this on January 6 on the FTC’s site: When Chairman Simons and I arrived at the FTC,…
London: New data leak exposes owners of 400,000 anonymous companies
Richard L. Cassin reports: Millions of documents leaked from a corporate services firm with a posh London address are helping journalists unmask owners of secret offshore companies and the alleged criminal activities of some of those owners. The information about the secret companies was leaked from Formations House. The firm does business from a front…
Texas school district loses $2.3 million from phishing scam
KSAT reports: Manor Independent School District, just east of Austin, is out of $2.3 million from a phishing scam. Investigators say the phishing email was sent to multiple people at the school district and it was a single person that responded. The money was sent through three separate transactions. Read more on KSAT.