Every so often, a natural disaster reminds us of other ways records are lost and why entities should have offsite backups that are regularly updated. Ishvarya Lakshmi reports: Patient records, medical instruments, drugs, syringes, needles and sanitary pads in several urban primary health centres (UPHC) were swept away during the recent cyclone. Officials at the…
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Did Akumin experience two cyber attacks in October and November? It has only acknowledged one. (1)
On October 25, DataBreaches reported that Akumin’s ability to provide diagnostic services at some locations remained disrupted two weeks after they detected suspicious activity on their network. What they subsequently identified as a ransomware attack occurred during a time when Akumin was also dealing with bankruptcy. While there was some resolution of financial issues, things…
Seattle cancer patients face blackmail threats after recent Fred Hutch data breach
Brittany Toolis reports: As if battling cancer isn’t hard enough, now patients at UW’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center are being extorted. Last month, the Cancer Center experienced a data breach, exposing data for an unknown number of patients. Some of those patients are getting emails threatening to leak their personal information if they don’t pay…
The Untold Story of a Massive Hack at HHS in Covid’s Early Days
Jordan Robertson and Riley Griffin report: On March 15, 2020, just days after the US declared a national emergency because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the computer network for the US Department of Health and Human Services briefly vanished from the internet. In public remarks the following day, HHS Secretary Alex Azar attributed the 10-minute outage to a cyberattack but…
FCC adopts new rules to protect consumers from SIM-swapping attacks
Sergiu Gatlan reports: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has revealed new rules to shield consumers from criminals who hijack their phone numbers in SIM swapping attacks and port-out fraud. FCC’s Privacy and Data Protection Task Force introduced the new regulations in July. They are geared toward thwarting scammers who seek to access personal data and information…
NoEscape gang continues to use DDoS to pressure reluctant victims to negotiate
Over on SuspectFile, Marco A. De Felice reports that the NoEscape ransomware gang is threatening to release 1.5 TB of data from PruittHealth Network. De Felice was unable to obtain any statements or responses from either PruittHealth or the threat actors, but notes that the threat actors claim to have attacked Pruitt on November 13…