KLTV reports: Two individuals have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obtain information from a protected computer in the Eastern District of Texas. Demetrius Cervantes, 46, of McKinney, and Amanda Lowry, 40, of Sherman, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obtain information from a protected computer on Dec. 3, 2020. Their co-conspirator, Lydia Henslee, 29, of Denison,…
TN: Personal information of some University of Memphis employees exposed in security breach
John Klyce reports: A security breach at the University of Memphis has caused private information of certain faculty and staff members to be compromised. In an email obtained by MBJ — dated Dec. 4 and sent to faculty and staff members — U of M CIO Robert Jackson said an individual had hacked into a university email account. While…
A dying man, a therapist and the ransom raid that shook the world
William Ralston reminds us how devastating the Vastaamo breach and ransom incident has been: Jukka-Pekka Puro will never forget 2017. Facing the heartbreak of a divorce, Puro, a university lecturer in Turku, southwestern Finland, found himself tussling with depression. This spiralled into suicidal ideations when doctors told him he had aggressive kidney cancer, and no…
China Publishes Lists and Rules Related to Import and Export of Commercial Encryption
Eric Carlson, Yan Luo, Min He and Zhijing Yu of Covington & Burling write: On December 2, 2020, China’s Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”), State Cryptography Agency (“SCA”), and the General Administration of Customs (“Customs”) jointly issued three documents (here) related to import and export of commercial encryption items: List of Commercial Encryption Subject to Import…
FireEye, a Top Cybersecurity Firm, Says It Was Hacked by a Nation-State
David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth report: For years, the cybersecurity firm FireEye has been the first call for government agencies and companies around the world who have been hacked by the most sophisticated attackers, or fear they might be. Now it looks like the hackers — in this case, evidence points to Russia’s intelligence agencies —…
GE puts default password in radiology devices, leaving healthcare networks exposed
Dan Goodin reports: Dozens of radiology products from GE Healthcare contain a critical vulnerability that threatens the networks of hospitals and other health providers that use the devices, officials from the US government and a private security firm said on Tuesday. The devices—used for CT scans, MRIs, X-Rays, mammograms, ultrasounds, and positron emission tomography—use a…