Tag: healthcare
TikTok Confirms Account Hack Targeting CNN – June 5th
In a public statement, Alex Haurek, TikTok's spokesperson, announced the hack on CNN's TikTok account, among other high-profile accounts. "We have taken measures to stop this attack and prevent it from happening in the future. We're working directly with affected account owners to restore access if needed," he added.
EPA Issues Warning for US Drinking Water Systems – May 21st
On Monday, May 20th, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a warning, urging water utility systems in the US to take action to prevent vulnerabilities. The EPA says 70% of water systems inspected don't fully comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act requirements, stating that some have "critical cyber vulnerabilities" such as default passwords that may be easily compromised.
Boeing Discloses $200M Ransomware Attempt – May 13th
Boeing made a significant disclosure: The LockBit ransomware group targeted the company, which demanded a staggering $200M extortion payment. Boeing did not pay LockBit a ransom despite 43 GB of company data leaked on the ransomware group's website in November 2023. Boeing is now in contact with the FBI to mitigate the breach.
Cyber gangs hold healthcare ransom
Cybercriminal groups have now completely abandoned any pretense that theirs are basically victimless crimes by attacking the healthcare sector with increasing ruthlessness. Healthcare, once said to be off limits to ‘responsible’ cyber criminals, is now the subject of an urgent warning from the Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) of the US Department of Health and Human Services. “HC3 has recently observed threat actors employing advanced social engineering tactics to target IT help desks in the health sector and gain initial access to target organizations,” the warning states. Tactics include contacting an organization’s IT help desk with phone calls from a familiar area code and claiming to be an employee in a financial role.
Google to Remove Billions of Personal Data to Settle Privacy Case – April 2nd
Google agreed to remove billions of personal records amid the previously announced lawsuit, accusing the tech giant of illegal surveillance. The personal records belong to approximately 136 million Google Chrome users. To add to the settlement, Google will add more disclosures of the terms for their 'incognito mode' feature.
‘INC Ransom’ Group Threatens to Release NHS Data – March 28th
The 'INC Ransom' ransomware group publicly threatened to release three terabytes of NHS Scotland sensitive patient and staff data, after publishing a smaller sample size proving the viability of the threat. NHS Dumfries and Galloway's efforts to prevent the attack from being repeated are underway in collaboration with Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
Beware of fake Google docs
An under-the-radar attack that creates fake Google docs is now playing havoc across multiple sectors in the US and UK, particularly in healthcare. Companies’ increasing reliance on widely-used off-the-shelf external software may save costs and create efficiencies in the short-term, but it also offers new inroads for the current generation of increasingly devious and skilled cybercriminals Cybersecurity firm Netskope has identified a new Google Docs threat in the wild, AZORult infostealer. It is designed to steal sensitive information such as user credentials, browser information, credit card details and crypto-wallet data. A comprehensive study conducted by Netskope’s research team has uncovered a campaign where an attacker created fake Google Docs pages on Google sites from which to download malicious payloads.
BlackCat gives go-ahead for healthcare attacks
Following actions taken against the infamous BlackCat ransomware group in December by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the cybercriminal gang has warned it is taking off the gloves in its fight with law enforcement. BlackCat previously took pride in regularly announcing that it does not encourage or support affiliates who target crucial sectors such as healthcare. But this approach has changed radically since the end of 2023. “Since mid-December 2023, of the nearly 70 leaked victims, the healthcare sector has been the most commonly victimized. This is likely in response to the ALPHV Blackcat administrator’s post encouraging its affiliates to target hospitals after operational action against the group and its infrastructure in early December 2023,” said the FBI.
11 Romantic AI Chatbots Fail Security Tests – February 15th
The Mozilla Foundation released research that unveils that all 11 romantic AI chatbots tested, failed security and privacy tests. All 11 chatbots feature data privacy concerns, pulling much more data than is needed from the collective 100 million users of these chatbots. Mozilla urges these chatbots to minimize exploiting vulnerable users through more transparent data privacy practices.
Chinese Malware Breaches Dutch Defense Department – February 7th
Specialists from the Netherlands' Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) and the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) announced a Chinese nation-state-sponsored malware 'Coathanger' and its breach on the Dutch Ministry of Defense (MoD). The stealthy 'Coathanger' malware's code revealed a remote access trojan (RAT) specifically built to infiltrate Fortinet's FortiGate firewalls through the 'CVE-2022-42475' vulnerability, which resulted in stolen user account credentials from the Dutch MoD's servers.
$80M in Crypto Stolen from Orbit Chain Cyberattack – January 3rd
Orbit Chain revealed to its users that as a result of a cyber attack, $84.5M worth of Ethereum and DAI (cryptocurrencies) were illicitly transferred to seven wallet addresses on the 1st of January. Orbit Chain is now coordinating with the Korean National Police Agency and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) to find the threat actors behind the cyber attacks, and to further protect its customers' crypto wallets.
Cyber-gangs to launch media offensive in 2024
Cybercrime, which has become a multi-trillion-dollar industry over recent decades, became increasingly sophisticated during 2023, with criminal groups now adopting many of the business practices used by legitimate enterprises. According to a new report from cybersecurity firm, Sophos, leading ransomware gangs now increasingly employ their own internal HR and PR departments. Far from shying away from the media, as criminals always have in the past, some ransomware gangs have been swift to seize the opportunities it affords them. Some regularly issue press releases and take great pains to forge relationships with individual journalists using the same PR methods as those employed by legitimate corporations. Threat actors also offer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and answers for journalists visiting their leak sites, encouraging reporters to get in touch, give in-depth interviews, and recruit writers, reports Sophos.