ARLNow reports: (Updated at 5:20 p.m.) Arlington County has revealed a cyber attack that penetrated the county’s payroll system. In a statement, the county says a number of employees were impacted by the intrusion, but did not specify the exact number or impacts. The intrusion appears to be the result of a “phishing” email targeting…
Category: U.S.
DNA-testing service exposed thousands of customer records online
Nico Grant reports: DNA-testing service Vitagene Inc. left thousands of client health reports exposed online for years, the kind of incident that privacy advocates have warned about as gene testing has become increasingly popular. More than 3,000 user files remained accessible to the public on Amazon Web Services cloud-computer servers until July 1, when Vitagene…
Philadelphia Federal Credit Union confirms security breach
The Philadelphia Federal Credit Union released this statement to ABC News: “On July 8, PFCU officials discovered potentially fraudulent activity involving a small percentage of members’ debit cards. While this incident is not the result of an internal PFCU breach, PFCU’s security and loss prevention specialists are working diligently to determine the cause of the…
Malware attack disables government computer systems in LaPorte, Indiana
Nick Pappas reports: According to LaPorte County Commission President Dr. Vidya Kora, county employees will not have access to any government email or website for at least a couple days. Authorities say that the county experienced a malware attack that occurred on Saturday morning, disabling computer and email systems. Read more on ABC.
Sometimes, paying the ransom doesn’t solve the problems
Paying ransom doesn’t always guarantee that a ransomware victim will be able to recover all of the encrypted data. Some more food for thought in a news story today about ransomware in the New York Times that highlights how small government entities are being targeted recently: The F.B.I. said it had received nearly 1,500 ransomware…
Mystery of NSA Leak Lingers as Stolen Document Case Winds Up
Tami Abdollah and Eric Tucker of AP report on what is arguably the most significant insider breach in our government of this century: Federal agents descended on the suburban Maryland house with the flash and bang of a stun grenade, blocked off the street and spent hours questioning the homeowner about a theft of government…