AP reports: The federal personnel agency whose records were plundered by hackers linked to China announced on Monday the temporary shutdown of a massive database used to update and store background investigation records after newly discovering a flaw that left the system vulnerable to additional breaches. There is no evidence the vulnerability has been exploited…
Category: U.S.
VA: Twin computer prodigies plead guilty to schemes to hack State Dept., others
Justin Jouvenal has an update on a case previously reported on this site in May: Twin brothers from Springfield have pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria to a series of computer hacking schemes that involved stealing credit card information, breaking into State Department computers and obtaining data from a private company. Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter,…
FBI Cyber Division Bulletin on Tools Reportedly Used by OPM Hackers
Public Intelligence reports: The following bulletin was released to private industry partners June 5, 2015. According to an article from Reuters, one of the remote access tools (RAT) described in the bulletin, called Sakula, is directly linked to the hack of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that was disclosed earlier this month. Other publications have directly…
ATF executive investigated by DOJ for possible employee data breach
Evan Perez reports: The Justice Department is investigating whether an executive at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives improperly accessed and downloaded the personal information of other employees, according to law enforcement officials briefed on the probe. The investigation centers on whether Scott Sweetow, deputy assistant director for strategic intelligence and information at ATF…
TN: Manchester Hotel Hospitality first notifies customers of breach IHG knew about months ago
On May 7, this site reported: It seems Six Continents Hotels (InterContinental Hotel Groups) was notified earlier this year by the Secret Service that some of its hotels had suffered a data security breach. One of the hotels IHG subsequently notified was Cities Service (Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Sulphur, Louisiana). IHG alerted them on February…
MD: Meritus contacting patients after ‘privacy incident’
CJ Lovelace reports: Meritus Medical Center is contacting patients about a “privacy incident” that may have compromised personal data, including names, demographics, clinical information and Social Security numbers. Meritus mailed out letters Friday to 1,029 individuals who may have been affected after conducting an investigation into the matter, according to a news release and a…