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The target: UC San Diego Health, the academic health system of the University of California.
The take: Exposure of personally identifiable information including: full name, address, date of birth, email, fax, claims information, medical diagnosis and conditions, social security number, student ID number and password, payment card number or financial account number.
The attack vector: The breach occurred when an employee clicked on a phishing email and unknowingly gave away their login credentials, company username and password, to the attackers. Using the employee’s legitimate credentials, the threat actors accessed the sensitive data.
Phishing attacks against individual employees remain one of the greatest security threats to an entire organization. Regular social engineering and awareness testing and training, along with tone-from-the-top messaging to emphasize the importance of critical thinking and caution are crucial to protecting sensitive information assets.
Yahoo Finance: IBM Security announced the results of a global study which found that data breaches now cost surveyed companies $4.24 million per incident on average – the highest cost in the 17-year history of the report.
Yahoo News: Cybersecurity agencies have revealed the top 30 vulnerabilities exploited by hackers last year in a fresh warning to organisations. The UK and allies in the US and Australia said most exposures were already publicly known during the past two years and are often due to dated software.
The Washington Post: Congress, urged on by the nation’s top law enforcement agencies, is pushing to require companies to report ransomware attacks in an effort to help the government understand the scope of the threat.
Global News: U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned that if the United States ended up in a “real shooting war” with a “major power” it could be the result of a significant cyber attack on the country, highlighting what Washington sees as growing threats posed by Russia and China.
Sky News: The London-headquartered private equity firm is to be wound up following a months-long dispute between its three principals and controversy over its ownership of the surveillance technology provider NSO Group, Sky News learns.
Financial Times Adviser: In a Dear CEO letter published July 26, the FCA said several firms had experienced IT outages and severe operational issues due to a surge in trading activity on November 9, 2020.
TechTarget: Venture capitalists are investing heavily in cybersecurity as low series rounds receive record-setting funding, and analysts say the trend will only continue.
The target: Lake County Health Department, a Chicago-based centre for management of health services.
The take: Exposure of name, date of birth, phone number, email address, and Covid-19 vaccination status for over 700 patients.
The attack vector: The data was exposed through an unsecured Google sheet saved on an employee’s private Google Drive account which was being accessed by company employees.
This breach is a critical reminder of the importance of robust security controls wherever customer data is concerned. Using private services poses a great threat as these are not subject to a company’s cybersecurity standards, and nor are their authentication controls in place. It also exposes the data to credential stuffing attack. If the employees personal account was compromised anywhere else, access to the company data is now at risk. Strict separation between personal and professional IT systems is critical for maintain an accurate picture of access and control.
Yahoo News: Fraud and hacking soared during the pandemic as criminals “took advantage of behavioural changes” while reports of domestic abuse-related offences also rose, official figures show.
Business Wire: ExtraHop, the leader in cloud-native network detection and response, today announced the completion of its acquisition by Bain Capital Private Equity and Crosspoint Capital Partners.
CRN: Private equity goliaths, SPACs, and pure-play security mainstays spent nearly $31 billion on the year‘s top cybersecurity acquisitions, placing big bets on securing networks and endpoints as well as managing employee and customer access.
Tech Crunch: Thoma Bravo-owned Sophos has announced it’s acquiring Braintrace, a cybersecurity startup that provides organizations visibility into suspicious network traffic patterns. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
EurekAlert!: A new study of almost 12,000 Australians has found one-third of the adult population has experienced pure cybercrime during their lifetime, with 14% reporting this disruption to network systems in the past 12 months.
SABC News: President Joe Biden and senior US officials will meet private sector leaders on August 25 to discuss ways to beef up cyber security, a White House spokesperson said on Wednesday, underscoring the need for collective action.
CBC: The United States, Canada, and numerous other nations formally blamed China on Monday for a massive hack of the Microsoft Exchange email server software and accused Beijing of working with criminal hackers in ransomware attacks and other cyber operations.
The target: Artwork Archive, an online platform used to connect artists and buyers based in Denver, Colorado.
The take: 200,000 records of Personally Identifiable Information including: first and last name, physical addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and purchase details with sales agreements.
The attack vector: An unsecured Amazon S3 storage server was misconfigured, allowing anyone with an internet connection to access and download the data.
The exposure of personal information can lead to highly targeted phishing and fraud attacks. Given how detailed the information was in this exposure, the threat of spear-phishing campaigns is high. Use of authentication protocols is an integral part of maintaining a rigorous cybersecurity posture, and it is critical to employ industry standard practices of credential management, user authentication and validation, around all storage of customer data.
CBS News: Following a slew of high-profile ransomware attacks, the Biden administration has formed a multi-agency government task force aimed at curtailing malicious, state-sponsored cyber activity and hardening the nation's cybersecurity defenses, as more and more of American critical infrastructure migrates online.
BNN Bloomberg: NortonLifeLock Inc. is in talks to buy European cybersecurity firm Avast Plc, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing two unidentified people familiar with the matter.
PYMNTS: Cybereason, which can help prevent cyberattacks, is the recipient of a $275 million investment from crossover funding, according to a company press release.
KnowBe4: NYDFS offers up sound best practices in addition to their recently released Cyber Insurance Risk Framework based on recent attack investigations, finding repeated use of “the same handful of techniques.”
Dark Reading: When Team Cymru's James Shank worked with the Ransomware Task Force to come up with the worst-case scenarios for a ransomware attack, the group focused heavily on impacts: How could attackers endanger people or cause significant damage to infrastructure?
BNN Bloomberg: The Russia-linked ransomware gang REvil has seemingly vanished from the dark web, where it maintains several pages documenting its activities including one called the “happy blog.”
Institutional Asset Manager: Executives at some of the world’s biggest banks, insurers and asset managers were asked to choose from a list of potential business, economic, policy, social and environmental threats to growth. They ranked cyber-attacks top (56 per cent), followed by pandemics (51 per cent) and over-regulation (50 per cent).
The target: Morgan Stanley, an investment banking firm providing banking, securities, and wealth management services worldwide.
The take: Stock plan participant’s names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, corporate company names.
The attack vector: The breach occurred within a third-party vendor, Guidehouse, used by Morgan Stanley. Guidehouse in turn was using Accelion’s FileTransferApplication, which had been compromised earlier this year. Using a known exploit in Accelion’s FTA service, attackers were able to penetrate Guidehouse’s systems and access files Morgan Stanley had stored there. While the data was encrypted, access to the decryption key was also not secure, allowing the attackers to steal and read the data.
This incident highlights the ease with which a single breach can lead to a pivot into other systems. While Morgan Stanley’s own systems were not at risk, their data was stored with a third-party who failed to fully secure their own systems by using an exploited piece of software. The cascading nature of data breaches cannot be understated, and every effort should be made by firms to secure their data no matter where it is being stored.
The Sydney Morning Herald: Some of the world’s largest technology companies have told Parliament a proposed bill to allow Australia’s cyber security agencies to install software on their networks risked making the problem of digital attacks worse.
NBC News: A top lawyer for America's cyberwarrior force is calling publicly for military operations against transnational criminal hackers, shedding light on a debate inside and outside the government about how best to deal with ransomware and other virtual threats.
CoinGape: “Robinhood Crypto” the cryptocurrency brokerage unit of trading app Robinhood is facing a $10 Million penalty by New York regulators. Robinhood Crypto is penalized for allegedly violating state rules on cybersecurity and anti-money laundering.
NDTV: President Joe Biden said on Tuesday the ransomware attack centered on the Florida information technology firm Kaseya seems to have inflicted only "minimal damage" on American businesses.
Help Net Security: A RUSI paper finds that the contribution of the insurance sector to improving cyber security practice is ‘more limited than policymakers and businesses might hope’, and recommends government and industry action.
Investing: Chinese regulators have gained a reputation for aggressive action, but even hardened investors were shocked by the announcement of a probe into ride-hailing firm Didi just two days after its $4.4 billion New York stock market debut.
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