Robert McMillan, Dustin Volz, and Aruna Viswanatha report: Extortion payments from ransomware, a hacking scourge that has crippled hospitals, schools and public infrastructure, fell significantly last year, according to federal officials, cybersecurity analysts and blockchain firms. One of the examples cited surprised me, as I had no idea a Conti call center had so many…
Ex-ASML Employee Accused of Data Theft Is Being Probed for Ties to China
Jordan Robertson, Cagan Koc, and Chris Strohm report: Investigators are looking at potential ties between the Chinese government and an ex-employee accused of stealing data from ASML Holding NV — a company critical to producing the world’s most advanced computer chips. The former employee, who was based in China, was identified as having potential ties to…
GSA not tapping data on unauthorized access attempts at federal facilities, report says
Chris Riotta reports: The General Services Administration is failing to act on data linked to access cards used to enter federal facilities, according to a new oversight report. A two-year audit conducted between 2020 and 2022 revealed over 32,000 failed access attempts at GSA-managed facilities, the Office of Inspector General report said, possibly indicating attempts to gain…
6 Class Actions: Lawyers Across the Country Move Quickly After Hospital Data Breach
Charles Toutant reports: A New Jersey hospital has been hit with six class action suits after hackers obtained patient information in a data breach. CentraState Medical Center allegedly failed to take adequate precautions to prevent such attacks, and then compounded the error by waiting six weeks to notify plaintiffs and class members about the breach,…
Minneapolis Public Schools tap dances around telling parents and employees what really happened
The bar has been lowered. Which bar, you wonder? The bar for how low entities will sink rather than just saying they experienced a ransomware attack. Becky Z. Dernbach reports: Minneapolis Public Schools will open for in-person instruction as usual Monday, after a week of disruptions from “technical difficulties” and snow. In an email to…
In updated disclosure, News Corp says state hackers were on its network for two years
Sergiu Gatlan reports: Mass media and publishing giant News Corporation (News Corp) says that attackers behind a breach disclosed in 2022 first gained access to its systems two years before, in February 2020. This was revealed in data breach notification letters sent to employees affected by the data breach, who had some of their personal and health information…