Cybersecurity

List of data breaches and cyber attacks in January 2020 – 1.5 billion records breached

By Korede Ola March 13, 2020

The new decade has begun relatively well, with a six-month low of only 61 disclosed cybersecurity incidents.

By comparison, 2019 saw an average of almost 80 data breaches and cyber attacks per month.

It’s not all good news, though. Several major incidents occurred in January, boosting the total number of breached records to a substantial 1,505,372,820.

That includes several worrying incidents involving UK organizations – which are highlighted in bold.

You can find detailed breakdowns of some of the more notable incidents by subscribing to our Round-ups or by visiting our cheatsheet page where we have a dedicated variety of handy cybersecurity cheatsheets.

In the meantime, you can check out the full list here:

Cyber attacks

Ransomware

Travelex suspends services after ransomware attack (unknown)
Richmond County Schools, MI, refuses to pay $10k ransom (unknown)
Saskatchewan’s eHealth records held hostage by cyber criminals (unknown)
Bartlett Public Library District, IL, computers disabled by ransomware (unknown)
Enloe Medical Center rescheduled elective procedures after being shut out of its systems (unknown)
Anchorage-based bty Dental notifies patients after ransomware attack (2,008)
Patients at The Center for Facial Restoration receive ransom demand (unknown)
Dawson’s Creek, British Columbia, hit by ransomware (unknown)
California’s Panama-Vista School District says ransomware will delay report cards (15,985)
Colonie, NY, working on backups after cyber criminals lock down computer system (unknown)
New Jersey synagogue hit by Sodinokibi ransomware (unknown)
Oman’s largest insurance company shut down by ransomware (unknown)

Data breaches

Data leak exposes the owners of thousands of anonymous offshore companies (unknown)
Fresh Film Productions leaks personal data of Dove ‘real people’ ad participants (1,500)
Insecure database leaks Brits’ passport info online (+2,000)
Consultancy firms leak data on workers (+2,000)
UK betting firms given vast access to children’s personal data (28 million)
University of Ottawa says password-protected laptop was stolen from campus (188)
IT provider for Fayette Co., OH, loses six months of data in mix-up (unknown)
Database belonging to people-finder site CheckPeople.com found online (56.25 million)
Software provider Front Rush exposed server of student’s information (700,000)
Every day, millions of patients’ health records are spilled onto the Internet (1.19 billion)
Peekaboo Moments app left baby videos and users’ email address exposed online (800,000)
Smart city system City Brain exposed its data online – again (unknown)
A hacker is selling personal data that they claim belongs to San Fran-based LimeLeads (49 million)
Amazon Web Services bucket containing webcam models’ data leaked online (875,000)
Investigation underway into privacy breach at City of Corner Brook’s website (unknown)
Ukraine says personal data leaked from government jobs portal (unknown)
Hacker leaks database of passwords for home routers and smart devices (515,000)
Microsoft discloses security breach of customer support system (250 million)
PIH Health notifies patients of data breach after email gaffe (200,000)
Iowa Department of Human Services discloses janitorial mishap involving personal data (4,784)
H&M under investigation amid claims of massive privacy breach (unknown)

Financial information

Malicious insiders and miscellaneous incidents

In other news…

Source: IT Governance

Cybersecurity

Cyber Attacks and Data Breaches of 2019 in Infographics

By Korede Ola March 13, 2020

Throughout the year 2019, we kept an eye on cyber attack and data breach reported in mainstream publications, releasing our findings in our monthly blog series.

This allowed us to see how many security incidents were occurring, how many records were involved and which industries were worst affected.

Did you know, for example, that July was the worst month of the year in terms of breached records? Or that the leading cause of data breaches was internal error?

With 2019 in the books, we’ve summarised these and other facts in infographics below

Source: IT Governance

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

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

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

Cybersecurity

List of data breaches and cyber attacks in May 2019 – 1.39 billion records leaked

By Korede Ola June 3, 2019

The cyber security story for May 2019 is much the same as it was last month, with one mammoth breach raising the monthly total.

The offender this time is the First American Financial Corp., which breached sixteen years’ worth of insurance data. That incident accounted for more than 60% of all of May’s breached records.

In total, at least 1,389,463,242 records were compromised. That brings the annual running total to 7.28 billion and reduces the monthly average to 1.44 billion.

Cyber attacks

Ransomware

Hackers breach the Philippines United Student Financial System for Tertiary Education (unknown)
A hacker is wiping Git repositories and asking for a ransom (unknown)
New York newspaper firm faces another Ryuk attack (unknown)
Connecticut school district thwarts ransomware attack (unknown)
American Baptist Homes of the Midwest hit by ransomware (unknown)
Kentucky library closes due to ransomware attack (unknown)
City of Baltimore hit by second ransomware attack in a year (unknown)
Illinois-based Augustana College reports ransomware attack (unknown)
Southeastern Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence notifies patients of ransomware attack (25,148)
Oklahoma City Public Schools confirm that they have been hit by ransomware(unknown)
Louisville Regional Airport Authority hit by ransomware (unknown)

Data breaches

Popular US recruitment site Ladders exposes users’ data in security lapse (13.7 million)
Seattle University laptop containing Social Security numbers lost (2,000)
UK government commits email privacy blunder (300)
Vulnerability in Tommy Hilfiger Japan database expose customers’ data (1 million)
Louisiana’s Madison Parish Hospital notifies patients of a security incident(1,436)
Hong Kong government dental clinic loses patients’ personal data (383)
Man finds medical records from Cork University Hospital on city street(unknown)
Cork University Hospital accuses man who found medical record on city street of data breach (unknown)
Children’s personal data found at dump in Yellowknife, Canada (191)
Virginia hospital loses patient’s personal data… twice (1)
Data leak at Canada’s fourth phone network exposed customer data (5 million)
Database containing Indian personal records exposed and hijacked(275,265,298)
School exam vendor exposes students’ personal data (525,000)
Data breach at CT-based Greenwich school poses ‘clear and present danger’(unknown)
DVLA sends motorists’ sensitive data to the wrong address (2,000)
Almost everyone in Panama has had their personal data exposed (3,427,396)
Oklahoma Dept of Securities notifies those affected by 2018 data breach (2 million+)
Data breach exposes passport info of Russian officials and citizens (360,000)
Burger King online store for children exposes customers’ info (37,900)
Unsecured survey database exposes respondents’ personal details (8 million)
TeamViewer confirms undisclosed data breach from 2016 (unknown)
Redtail CRM data breach might have exposed client info (unknown)

Financial information

Malicious insiders and miscellaneous incidents

In other news…

Source: IT Governance

Trending

Hack The Box Walkthrough & solutions

By Korede Ola May 12, 2019

Below are solutions to most famous CTF challenges, comprising of detailed explanations, step-by-step reflection and proper documentation. These solutions have been compiled from authoritative penetration websites including hackingarticles.in, Hackthebox.eu, ctftime.org as well as open source search engines. Hack responsibly!Featured Solutions: