For the second time in the past year, an alliance serving dental practices has been hit with a cyberattack. Last year’s attack impacted patients at Kids First Dentistry & Orthodontics, a subsidiary of Professional Dental Alliance of Connecticut. They reported a a ransomware attack on First Impressions Orthodontics impacted their patients. This year, a number…
Category: U.S.
Chico State employee charged with hacking, leaking vaccine exemption requests
Austin Herbaugh reports: A Chico State employee has been charged with criminal hacking after officials say he leaked vaccine exemption requests and personal information from some students. 22-year-old Alejandro Benitez is accused of publishing a list of Chico State students who applied for a religious exemption from the university’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement. Read more on…
US Government warns of BlackMatter ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure
Graham Cluley writes: The US Government has issued an alert to organisations about the threat posed by the BlackMatter ransomware group. The government’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (better known as CISA) issued the advisory earlier this week, following a series of BlackMatter ransomware attacks since July 2021 targeting US critical infrastructure, including two American organisations working…
Indiana orthopedics practice becomes a victim of a ransomware attack
I hate to see medical entities become victims of ransomware attacks, but if they do, then I’m glad to see them promptly alert patients to any problems. Central Indiana Orthopedics is a positive example of prompt alerting. The following notice appears on their web site: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: We regret to inform you that Central Indiana…
MA: Nock Middle School student faces identity theft charges
I looked at this news article because it struck me as unusual that a middle school student would be charged with identity theft, but after reading the story, it struck me that this may be more properly understood as a case of online harassment. But then I realized that impersonation accounts can be used for…
Members of at least two health insurance plans notified of ransomware attack on PracticeMax (updated)
Updated March 7, 2022: PracticeMax reported this incident to the Maine Attorney General’s Office as impacting a total of 165,698 patients. Their updated notice explains that the breach began on April 17, 2021, and they became aware of technical problems on May 1, 2021. The notice also reads, in part: On October 19, 2021, while…