Trevor Ballantyne reports: School officials this week acknowledged a failure to properly redact personally identifiable information linked to students receiving special education services from the school district. According to emails obtained by The News-Times, parents accused the district of violating privacy protections laid out under the U.S. Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA,…
Category: U.S.
AstraZeneca password lapse exposed patient data
Here’s today’s example of “No Need to Hack When It’s Leaking.” Zack Whittaker reports: Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has blamed “user error” for leaving a list of credentials online for more than a year that exposed access to sensitive patient data. Mossab Hussein, chief security officer at cybersecurity startup SpiderSilk, told TechCrunch that a developer left the…
Scammers use sensitive information trick student loan borrowers
Warn any family or friends who may have outstanding student loans to be wary of scammers contacting them about their loans. WRAL reports: The Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan is not only attracting criticism but scammers too. This time-scammers are promising victims far more financial forgiveness than what is possible and using detailed and…
Aveanna Healthcare To Pay $425,000 Following Phishing Attacks in 2019 That Impacted Thousands of Massachusetts Residents
BOSTON — A Georgia-based home health and hospice care company will pay $425,000 after it failed to implement proper security measures to protect the personal information of patients and employees, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today. The complaint and consent judgment against Aveanna Healthcare, LLC, entered today in Suffolk Superior Court, follows a series of phishing attacks that impacted more than…
Ransomware cost US banks $1.2 billion last year
Dan Robinson reports: Banks in the US paid out nearly $1.2 billion in 2021 as a result of ransomware attacks, a marked rise over the year before though it may simply be due to more financial institutions being asked to report incidents. The figures come from the most recent Financial Trend Analysis report [PDF] on ransomware from…
Russian Hacker Behind Massive Data Breach Released From U.S. Prison
Todd Prince and Mike Eckel report: A Russian hacker who was convicted for his leading role in one of the largest data thefts in U.S. history has been released from prison after serving most of his 12-year sentence. Vladimir Drinkman was released from a Pennsylvania jail on October 28, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons told…