From their press release: On March 13, 2017, LCS-WP LLC d/b/a Walnut Place (“Walnut Place”) leadership discovered that some of its systems had been infected with ransomware (a type of computer malware that encrypts files). Walnut Place’s investigation has revealed that the ransomware began affecting its systems on or around January 25, 2017 and was…
Category: U.S.
NYU Accidentally Exposed Military Code-breaking Computer Project to Entire Internet
Sam Biddle reports: IN EARLY DECEMBER 2016, Adam was doing what he’s always doing, somewhere between hobby and profession: looking for things that are on the internet that shouldn’t be. That week, he came across a server inside New York University’s famed Institute for Mathematics and Advanced Supercomputing, headed by the brilliant Chudnovsky brothers, David and Gregory. The…
Chinese Hackers Must Pay $8.9 Million for Law Firm Data Theft
There’s an update to a case previously noted on this site. Bob Van Voris reports: Three Chinese hackers who traded on data they stole from two top New York law firms were ordered by a judge to pay $8.9 million. U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan on May 5 fined the men and ordered…
Texas health system settles potential HIPAA violations for disclosing patient information
Okay, this seems a bit harsh in terms of monetary penalty. From another HHS/OCR settlement announced today: Memorial Hermann Health System (MHHS) has agreed to pay $2.4 million to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and adopt a comprehensive corrective action plan to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability…
Company Awarded Damages After Former Employee Hacks Its Systems and Hijacks Its Website
Michael Bertoncini writes: A company can recover damages from its former employee in connection with his hacking into its payroll system to inflate his pay, accessing its proprietary files without authorization and hijacking its website, a federal court ruled. Tyan, Inc. v. Yovan Garcia, Case No. CV 15-05443- MWF (JPRx) (C.D. Cali. May 2, 2017). The…
Confidential medical records from Bronx-Lebanon Hospital exposed online by vendor’s error
Vendor’s error appears to have exposed personal and confidential medical data of patients seen at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center since 2014; Records also include addiction histories, psych histories, and histories of physical or sexual abuse; Hospital investigating to determine what happened and who may have accessed data. By now, you may be tired of reading reports on misconfigured MongoDB installations…