Cybersecurity

Data Breaches & Cyber Attacks, Nov. 2019 – 1.34 Billion records

By Korede Ola December 24, 2019

November 2019 was a big month for data breaches, with a confirmed 1,341,147,383 records being exposed in 87 incidents.

However, almost all of those came from one leaked database, the origin of which is unclear as at the time of this writing.

Here is a full list of data breaches in November, showing the 1.34 billion records breached

Cyber Attacks

Peer-to-peer lender company LendingCrowd reports security incident (unknown)
Labour Party hit by “sophisticated” cyber attack (unknown)
Another cyber attack on Labour Party as election nears (unknown)
James Fisher and Sons says no data was lost in cyber attack (unknown)
Perth Anaesthetic Group breached as hackers break into database (unknown)
NordVPN users’ passwords exposed in mass credential-stuffing attacks (2,000)
Brooklyn Hospital Center couldn’t recover data after malware attack (unknown)
Indian startup Vedantu confirms breach of customer details (687,000)
Four employees at Maine-based InterMed P.A fall for phishing scam (33,000)
Dental Delta of Arizona discloses data breach caused by phishing attack (unknown)
Connecticut’s Starling Physicians warns patients after phishing scam (unknown)
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine notifying patients after 2018 phishing incident (3,716)
Online forum of cyber security firm ZoneAlarm hacked (unknown)
California’s Solara Medical Supplies notifies authorities after phishing attack (114,007)
TX-based Choice Cancer notifies patients about May security incident (unknown)
Alabama-based CAH Holdings issues vague notice after company email account breached (unknown)
Australian drug rehab centre Adele House exposes patient data after giving resident access (>200)
Dublin-based Liver Wellness tells patients that a hacker accessed its email systems (unknown)
Activist leaks files from Sayari after it demoed its software with US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (unknown)
France’s Rouen University Hospital-Charles Nicolle says 6,000 computers affected by malware infection (unknown)
T-Mobile’s US customers affected by cyber attack (1.1 million)
Florida Blue members’ personal information at risk following Magellen Health NIA breach (55,000)
Select Health says patients affected after employee email accounts were compromised (unknown)
South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit ransacked, crooks steal $48.7M (unknown)
US-based Ivy Rehab Physical Therapy tells customers their data has been compromised (unknown)
New Mexico’s Youth Development, Inc. breached in suspected phishing attack (unknown)
12-year-old Florida student faces felony charge after hacking school computer to avoid doing schoolwork (unknown)
OnePlus confirms second data breach in two years (unknown)
Thousands of Disney+ fans say they’ve been hacked after signing up to new streaming service (>2,000)

Ransomware

NM-based Las Cruces Public School computers still offline after ransomware (24,710)
Two major Spanish companies have been hit by ransomware:
- IT consultancy Everis (unknown)
- Radio network Cadena SER (unknown)
Watertown, CT, school system hit by ransomware (2,765)
Ransomware at Lincoln County School District, Mississippi, shuts down systems (3,197)
Hosting provider SmarterASP.NET hit by ransomware attack (440,000)
Mexico’s Pemex Oil suffers ransomware attack, $4.9M demanded (unknown)
Texas’s Port Neches-Groves Independent School District hit by ransomware (5,131)
Louisiana state government’s IT systems hit by ransomware (unknown)
US-based National Veterinary Associates crippled as 400 facilities hit with ransomware (unknown)
Missouri-based Saint Francis Healthcare says not all records recovered after ransomware (unknown)
Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles closed for multiple days after ransomware attack (unknown)
Massachusetts’ Chicopee Public School district computers, servers hit with ransomware (7,677)
New York’s Sag Habor School District affected by ransomware attack (unknown)
WI-based Virtual Care Provider held to ambitious $14M ransom (unknown)
US-based security company Allied Universal raided after failing to act on ransomware attack (unknown)
New Jersey’s Livingston Public Schools ransomware infection delays classes (unknown)
Southern First Nations Network of Care, a California-based child welfare authority, hit by ransomware (unknown)
Nebraska’s Great Plains Health infected with ransomware (unknown)
NYPD pulls its fingerprint database offline after ransomware spreads through connected computers (unknown)
Marriott notifies California Attorney General’s Office of a third-party incident (unknown)
Spanish security company Prosegur says it’s been hit by ransomware (unknown)

Data Breaches

Financial Information

Malicious insiders and miscellaneous incidents

Source: IT Governance

Reports

Threats Report – McAfee Labs

Threats Report - McAfee Labs

Cyber Attack Trends – Check Point Research

By Korede Ola November 17, 2019

Reports

MMC Cyber Handbook 2020

By Korede Ola November 11, 2019

MMC Cyber Handbook 2020

Advancing Cyber Resilience

Source: LinkedIn

Reports

Data breaches & attacks in Oct. 2019 – 421 Million

By Korede Ola November 11, 2019

List of data breaches and cyber attacks in October 2019 – 421 million records breached

In a month where security experts across Europe were boosting awareness of cyber security, organisations had mixed results in their own data protection practices.

On the one hand, the 421,103,896 data records that were confirmed to have been breached in October represents about 50% of the monthly average.

But on the other hand, there were a staggering 111 incidents, including several in which sensitive and financial information was compromised.

It was also a particularly bad month for the UK, with 9 confirmed breaches. As we have been doing for the past few months, we’ve listed UK-specific incidents in bold.

Cyber attacks

Ransomware

Data breaches

Sioux Falls Veteran Affairs Health Care System warning patients about privacy breach after mail room gaffe (unknown)
Canadian pharmacy left patient data in a landfill (unknown)
Two Greater Manchester secondary schools affected after pupils’ data ‘misplaced’ (425)
Administrator at the University of Pittsburgh apologies after sharing student data (7)
Maine-based St. Mary’s Hospital won’t say whether it notified patients’ of ‘wall of shame’ (unknown)
IL-based Advocate Christ Medical Center demonstrates how not to respond to a data breach (1)
Russian mobile phone operator Beeline implicated in data breach (8.7 million)
Canadian woman receives someone else’s medical data from Interior Health (1)
Alberta Health Services says hard drive containing personal data has been missing since August (650)
Mail provider Click2Mail alerting customers to data breach (unknown)
Brazilians’ personal details auctioned on underground forums (92 million)
Auckland woman sent ‘fully identifiable’ mental health notes about another patient (1)
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital patients furious after their health records sent to the wrong address (11)
Philadelphia Department of Health exposes names of people with hepatitis (23,000)
Devon woman’s answerphone message somehow became Devon hospital’s voicemail (1)
Databases belonging to two popular cashback services operating in the UK and India breached (3.5 million)
Employees at Canada’s Lucia Mar School District at risk after email gaffe (unknown)
Job seekers in the UK and US hit after recruitment sites misconfigure Cloud databases (250,000)
Mercedes-Benz app glitch exposed car owners’ personal info to other users (100,000)
Cyber security firm WizCase uncovered a spate of data breaches at:
- Brazillian Medical office practice management system Cadlin (1.2 million)
- Canadian dental software firm ClearDent (60,000)
- US firm JintelHealth, now known as DeepThink Health (700,000)
- International ophthalmic optics group Essilor (1,700)
- NAISS (the Nigerian HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey) (80,000)
- Saudi Arabian data analytics platform Stella Prism (300,000)
- US-based pharmacy software provider VScript (800)
- Tsinghua University Clinical Medical College in China (50,000)
- Sichuan Lianhao Technology Group in China (24 million)
US-based reservations management system Autoclerk leaks hotel guest data (>2,000)
British charity Home Group warns customers after data breach (4,000)
Patients’ data exposed on Malaysia’s national neurology website (17,000)
Virginia-based CARFAX files lawsuit alleging data theft (unknown)
Adobe exposed personal data of its creative-software providers (7.5 million)
Southeast Missouri State University email gaffe breaches students’ privacy (50)
CenturyLink discovered that database containing customer info was exposed online for months (2.8 million)
Irish beauty chain Thérapie Clinic investigating data breach (unknown)
European bank UniCredit says compromised file caused data leak (3 million)
Ontario Science Centre breaches donors’ names, email addresses (174,000)
US retailer Kroger reports ‘isolated incident’ involving pharmacy records (unknown)
Unified Carrier Registration’s website leaking Social Security numbers and tax info (23,000)
SC-based Prisma Health discloses its third data breach in two months (22,000)
West Berkshire Council notifies ICO after email gaffe (1,107)
Esports players furious after FIFA 20 promo results in data leak (1,600)
ZenDesk says it’s discovered a historic data breach (10,000)

Financial information

Malicious insiders and miscellaneous incidents

In other news…

Source: IT Governance

Cybersecurity

List of data breaches in September 2019 – 531 million records leaked

By Korede Ola October 6, 2019

Thanks to a whopping data breach from an unknown server exposing 419 million data records, our monthly total comes to 531,596,111 breached records.

This brings the total amount of breached records for the year so far to 10,331,579,614.

September may have had fewer incidents than August at only 75, but overall there was a massive 363% increase on records breached.

Cyber attacks

University of Ghana accommodation registration portal hacked (unknown)
Cincinnati-based UC Health says multiple accounts compromised in phishing scam (unknown)
Students in Thailand accused of stealing, selling food discount codes (unknown)
Hong Kong Stock Exchange says its website was hacked (unknown)
Oklahoma Highway Patrol reports $4.1 million theft from pension fund (unknown)
xkcd forum taken offline after personal data leak (562,000)
US Secret Service investigating after its systems found for sale on the dark web (unknown)
Students at Marquette University, WI, receive unusual scam email (unknown)
Malaysia’s Malindo Air confirms that passengers’ data was posted on online forums (30,000,000)
Hacker destroys Hungarian Development Center’s digital database (unknown)
Staff and students at Swindon College at risk after cyber attack (unknown)
Ramsay County, MN, says last year’s email attack was much worse than they thought (118,000)
Health Ministry of Malaysia investigating data leak of radiology reports (19,992)
Hacker accesses email account of employee at New Mexico’s Presbyterian Health Plan (56,226)
Northshore School District hit by cyber attack (unknown)
Southwestern Ontario hospitals hit by cyber attack (unknown)

Ransomware

Data breaches

Financial information

Malicious insiders and miscellaneous incidents

In other news…

Source: IT Governance

Cybersecurity

Data breaches in August 2019 |114.6M records leaked

By Korede Ola September 8, 2019

At first glance, August has been a quiet month for data breaches, with a total of 114,686,290 breached records. That’s about 10 percent of the monthly average coming into the month.

But that figure comes from 95 incidents in total, which is the highest number of breaches we’ve had all year.

Let’s take a look at those breaches in full in our slightly tweaked monthly list. After a reader suggestion last month, we’re also listing the UK-specific incidents in bold. Let us know if you like that change or if you have any other suggestions for future months.

Cyber attacks

Ransomware

Data breaches

Financial information

Malicious insiders and miscellaneous incidents

In other news…

Source: IT Governance

Cybersecurity

List of data breaches and cyber attacks in July 2019 – 2.3 billion records leaked

By Korede Ola August 5, 2019

Remember after last month’s relatively serene cyber security scene we said this wasn’t the beginning of the GDPRevolution?

July was bound to be a bounce-back month, but we couldn’t have expected the frighteningly high total of 2,359,114,047 breached records.

Granted, a big chunk of those come from a single incident – a mammoth breach involving a Chinese smart tech supplier – but as unimaginative football commentators say, ‘they all count’.

Let’s take a look at the full list:

Cyber attacks

Ransomware

Data breaches

Financial information

Malicious insiders and miscellaneous incidents

Source: IT Governance

Cybersecurity

100 million Capital One customers were hacked?

By Korede Ola July 29, 2019

Capital One Financial Corp. announced late Monday that more than 100 million people had their personal information hacked.

The hacker got information including credit scores and balances, plus the Social Security numbers of about 140,000 customers and 80,000 bank-account numbers from credit-card customers, the bank said. It will offer free credit-monitoring services to those affected. The hack affected about 100 million people in the U.S. and 6 million in Canada.

Capital One couldn’t say for sure whether the leaked data was used for fraud. It first heard about the hack on July 19, but waited until July 29 to inform customers. Over that time, it sought help from law enforcement.

The hacker also stole the names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, credit scores and other financial data, Capital One COF, -1.18% said. The company couldn’t say for sure whether the leaked data was used for fraud. It first heard about the hack on July 19, but waited until July 29 to inform customers; it sought help from law enforcement to catch the alleged perpetrator.

Two years after Equifax EFX, +0.27% revealed that hackers accessed the personal information of up to 147 million people, the credit bureau recently announced a settlement for up to $700 million, including $425 million in relief for those who have been affected, although there are some key requirementspeople should be aware of before they file a claim.

Last year, Facebook FB, -1.91% announced that U.K.-based Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed 87 million Facebook users’ data. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress and vowed to do more to fix the problem, and help make sure that nothing like that happens again. Cambridge Analytica closed down in the wake of the scandal. Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5 billion.

Don’t miss: A worrying theory after Equifax and Facebook settlements — aggregated data is NOT enough to protect your privacy

WhatsApp, the messaging and audio app owned by Facebook, announced last May that hackers were able to install spyware on Android smartphones and AppleAAPL, +0.93% iPhones. “The attack has all the hallmarks of a private company reportedly that works with governments to deliver spyware that takes over the functions of mobile phone operating systems,” it said at the time.

More than 57 million customers of Uber UBER, -1.44% had their data exposed by a massive hack in October 2016. Uber fired its chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, and one of his deputies for concealing the hack, which included the email addresses of 50 million Uber riders around the world. The revelation was made a year after the attack. It also affected 7 million drivers.

Be on your toes after a major hack or data breach. Consumers should never give out personal details over the telephone, even if the caller seems to represent Capital One or the email appears to be from a Capital One email address.

Be on your toes after a major hack or data breach. Consumers should never give out personal details over the telephone, even if the caller seems to represent Capital One or the email appears to be from a Capital One address. Consumers need to be careful whenever they are contacted by an unsolicited caller. Hang up and call the number on your card. “Phishing” scams — calls, emails or text messages that appear to offer protection — are actually trying to get more data from customers.

Security experts generally recommend never re-using security passwords and say people should use two-factor authentication on their phones, which requires a user to put a code sent to a phone or email into an app or website in order to log in from a new device or to change a password. They also say those affected by such hacks should freeze their credit report.

Don’t be pawned off by an offer of credit monitoring. Credit monitoring only looks for changes on a credit report, indicating that someone is using your personal information to open new accounts in your name. Here’s the bad news: Such security precautions would not help people protect against a data breach like the one Capital One announced Monday evening. Exposure of data that can’t be changed, such as Social Security numbers, are the hallmarks of particularly severe data breaches.

Here’s what else you should do now:

1. Check if your accounts have been affected

There still aren’t many formal ways to check if your data has been compromised in a breach. Often, the company will alert affected customers, but they aren’t required to. Some states, like California, have laws requiring companies to disclose data breaches that affect a certain number of customers, and the Federal Trade Commission has discussed proposing similar regulations. Consumers can also monitor their credit report to shut down fraudulent activity as quickly as possible.

2. Know the difference between a credit freeze and a lock

A freeze means that a consumer cannot take out a new loan or credit card without “unfreezing” the report first, but also prevents a hacker from taking out a loan in your name. Credit agencies also offer a service called credit “locking,” which offers the same protections as a freeze, but typically cost a monthly fee. Contact Equifax, Experian EXPN, +1.53% and TransUnion TRU, -1.34% to request a freeze.

3. Sign up for additional fraud protection

Those affected should sign up for services that go beyond typical credit freezing and alert services, such as Lifelock, EZ Shield and Identity Guard. The most basic version of Lifelock costs $9.99 per month and provides benefits including address change verification, help canceling or replacing lost credit cards, driver’s licenses, Social Security cards and insurance cards, plus a “restoration team” that helps correct any identity-theft issues and black-market website surveillance.

4. Know the difference between a hack and a breach

A breach is when data is unintentionally left unsecured and vulnerable to hacking, as a result of malicious activity or from negligence. A hack specifically refers to the activities of cyber attackers who purposely compromise IT infrastructure to steal information or to hold systems ransom; that’s what happened with Capital One. If your data was part of a breach, it’s possible it was just left exposed online and was not stolen.

Source: Market Watch

Reports

The Space Threat Assessment

By Korede Ola June 27, 2019

While the vulnerabilities of U.S. national security space systems are often discussed publicly, the progress other nations are making in counterspace systems is not as readily accessible. Space Threat Assessment 2019 reviews the open-source information available on the counterspace capabilities that can threaten U.S. space systems. The report is intended to raise awareness and understanding of the threats, debunk myths and misinformation, and highlight areas in which senior leaders and policymakers should focus their attention.

Space Threat Assessment 2019 focuses on four specific countries that pose the greatest risk for the United States: China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. A fifth section analyzes the counterspace capabilities of select other countries, including some allies and partners of the United States, and some non-state actors. This report is not a comprehensive assessment of all known threats to U.S. space systems because much of the information on what other countries are doing to advance their counterspace systems is not publicly available. Instead, it serves as an unclassified assessment that aggregates and highlights open-source information on counterspace capabilities for policymakers and the general public.