Catalin Cimpanu reports: A ransomware gang tried to extract a ransom payment of an unheard-of sum of $5.3 million from the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, but the city chose to restore from backups after hackers rejected a smaller counter-offer of only $400,000. The incident happened in early July, but details were kept under wraps…
OH: UC Health to Notify Patients of Phishing Incident
On September 4, UC Health in Cincinnati disclosed that it is investigating a recent email phishing incident that may have involved patient information. In a press release posted on their site, they report that on July 6, they learned of a phishing attack that led to unauthorized access to “a limited number of UC Health…
CT: Police investigate attempted Sherman School data breach
Kendra Baker reports: State Police are investigating the discovery of ransomware on Sherman School computer servers last month. Ransomware is a software designed to deny access to data or a computer system until a ransom is paid. The malware was found in the school’s computer system Aug. 16, said Jeff Melendez, superintendent-principal of the Sherman…
A huge database of Facebook users’ phone numbers found online
Zack Whittaker reports: Hundreds of millions of phone numbers linked to Facebook accounts have been found online. The exposed server contained over 419 million records over several databases on users across geographies, including 133 million records on U.S.-based Facebook users, 18 million records of users in the U.K., and another with more than 50 million…
FTC Takes Tougher Data Security Stance After LabMD Fight
Sara Merken reports: The Federal Trade Commission is issuing specific data security requirements to companies as part of agency settlements, policing businesses more aggressively than before, attorneys and former staff said. Proposed settlements reached this year with LightYear Dealer Technologies LLC, ClixSense.com, Unixiz Inc, and D-Link Systems Inc. show what the FTC is expecting in…
Author of multiple IoT botnets pleads guilty
Catalin Cimpanu reports: A 21-year-old from Vancouver, Washington pleaded guilty today to creating and operating multiple iterations of DDoS botnets made up of home routers and other networking and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Kenneth Currin Schuchman, known online as Nexus Zeta, rented access to these botnets to others, but he also used the botnets…