Nate Nelson reports: Russian state hackers are performing targeted phishing campaigns in at least nine countries spread across four continents. Their emails tout official government business and, if successful, threaten not just sensitive organizational data, but also geopolitical intelligence of strategic importance. Such a sophisticated, multi-pronged plot could only be wrought by a group as…
Public notice of break-in at Whitehorse Victim Services office
The Government of Yukon is reporting a break-in that occurred at the Whitehorse Victim Services office sometime between the evening of March 15 and the morning of March 16, 2024. The Whitehorse detachment of RCMP “M” Division is investigating the break-in and the Department of Justice is following the appropriate procedures to respond to the…
Another plastic surgery group has fallen victim to a ransomware attack – Long Island Plastic Surgical Group/NYSPG (2)
On March 8, DataBreaches learned of another attack on a plastic surgery group. This time, it was the Long Island Plastic Surgical Group, a group that has 10 locations in New York and dozens of doctors. This is another ransomware story that may have a very unhappy ending for patients and employees. Hit by Two…
“Lifelock” pleads guilty to hacking and fraud charges
Earlier today, Robert A. Purbeck of Idaho, aka “Lifelock” and “Studmaster,” pleaded guilty in an Atlanta federal courtroom to two counts of an 11-count indictment filed against him in 2021. The two counts charged violation of Title 18, United States Code/ Sections 1030(a)(2)(C)/ 1030(c)(2)(B)(i) and 1030(c)(2)(B)(iii) and Section 2, more commonly known as the Computer…
The 2024 Breach Barometer reports a staggering 171 million patient records breached. And that’s just the ones we know about.
Each year, many news sites add up the number of reports on HHS’s public breach tool and then add up the number of records reported for those incidents. For 2023, that came to 725 reports and about 135 million records. Those numbers are disturbing, but not as disturbing as the numbers out today by Protenus….
Decreasing ransomware attacks: two strategies to consider
Experts agree that a ban on ransom payments should decrease ransomware attacks, but concerns about implementing any ban are not trivial. Here are two ideas to consider. Proposal 1: Increasing the Sanctions List Expanding the sanctions list to include every ransomware group with a leak site might make threat actors less likely to threaten victims…