Website Security

2022 In Review: An Eventful Cybersecurity Year

By |2023-01-18T14:28:44-05:00January 18th, 2023|Business Continuity Solutions, Cyber Security Awareness, Dark Web Monitoring, Infrastructure Security, IT Support, Uncategorized, Website Security|

Ikea logo

Furniture and home goods giant IKEA announced that it had experienced a data breach in its Canadian operations that impacted an estimated 95,000 customers. The company said that sensitive customer information was mistakenly provided to an employee in an internal search between March 1 and March 3, 2022.

No specifics about the compromise data were offered beyond confirmation that no financial or banking information was accessed. IKEA says that it has notified any customers that were impacted by the breach and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

CommonSpirit Logo
One of the largest healthcare systems in the US is experiencing outages impacting patient care after a suspected ransomware attack knocked some hospital systems offline. Subsidiaries of CommonSpirit have reported being affected by the attack including CHI Health facilities in Nebraska and Tennessee, Seattle-based Virginia Mason Franciscan Health providers, MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center, Houston-based St. Luke’s Health and Michigan-based Trinity Health System. The U.S. Department of Health data breach portal — where all healthcare organizations are legally obligated to report data breaches impacting more than 500 individuals — has confirmed that the threat actors accessed the personal data of 623,774 patients during the CommonSpirit ransomware attack.
Finalsite logo

School website services provider FinalSite has suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted access to websites for thousands of schools worldwide. FinalSite provides solutions for over 8,000 K – 12 schools and universities in 115 countries. School districts that hosted their websites with FinalSite found that they were no longer reachable or were displaying errors. Bleeping Computer reports that in addition to the website outages the attack prevented schools from sending closure notifications due to weather or COVID-19. FinalSite says that approximately 5,000 school websites went offline as a result of the ransomware attack and no data was stolen. An investigation is ongoing.

ICRC logo

The International Committee of the Red Cross has revealed that hackers have stolen data from a Swiss contractor that stores it for them. The stolen data includes information about over 515,000 highly vulnerable people that it has served, recipients of aid and services from at least 60 affiliates of the organization worldwide. The Red Cross says it typically reunites 12 missing people with their families every day through that program. As a result of this cyberattack, The International Red Cross has been forced to temporarily halt a program that reunites families torn apart by violence, migration or other tragedies. A spokesperson for the ICRC told news outlets that there have been no demands from the hackers in exchange for stolen data and that they were working with specialized firms to recover.
DDSB
A school system in the greater Toronto area has experienced a major technical outage after a hacking incident in late November 2022. The cyberattack impacted at-home schooling, phone and email systems at the board and forced the postponement of the literacy test (OSSLT). The district the board oversees is responsible for public education across 136 elementary and secondary schools in the eastern Toronto area serving an estimated 74,000 students with over 7,000 teaching and educational services staff.
Mircosoft logo
The Lapsus$ gang has released 37GB of source code that they snatched in a hit on Microsoft’s Azure DevOps server. Microsoft confirmed the incident, saying that the threat actors gained access through a compromised employee account.

The source code looks to pertain to various internal Microsoft projects, including for Bing, Cortana and Bing Maps. Microsoft made a blog post about its recent operations to track and potentially interfere with Lapsus$ last week. The company was quick to state, “Microsoft does not rely on the secrecy of code as a security measure and viewing source code does not lead to elevation of risk.” Lapsus$ is known to be a ransomware outfit, but no ransom activity was disclosed in this incident.

No information about consumer/employee PII, PHI or financial data exposure was available at press time.

Verizon logo

Verizon has announced that hackers obtained access to a database. The hacked database includes the full name, email address, corporate ID numbers, and phone number of hundreds of Verizon employees. According to reports, the hacker contacted Verizon to ask for an extortion payment of $250,000 to prevent the release of the stolen data. Verizon has said that they do not plan to pay.

Information exposed in the database includes employee names, email addresses, corporate ID numbers, and phone numbers. Verizon says that the database does not include Social Security Numbers, passwords or credit card numbers.

Sunwing Airlines Logo

Sunwing Airlines passengers were finding themselves delayed or stranded in airports in Canada and across the Caribbean after a cyberattack brought down boarding and check-in services maintained by Illinois-based service provider Airline Choice. The airline had been forced to manually check in passengers and handwrite boarding passes, causing massive delays for several days, with passengers stranded in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. The company in-turn had to subcontract flights with other airline carriers just to get some of its stranded passengers home.

Coke logo

The new ransomware group Stormous claims they’ve pulled off a ransomware attack against The Coca-Cola Company, claiming that it snatched 161 gigabytes of data. The hacking group has been linked with Russian nationalist cybercrime following its public statement vowing to take action against companies that pulled out of Russia in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Financial data, passwords and commercial account records are said to be among the stolen data. Coca-Cola says that it is investigating the matter.

Scarborough Health Network

Toronto healthcare provider Scarborough Health Network has disclosed that it has experienced a data breach. Officials say that an unauthorized actor gained access to the organization’s systems around January 25, 2022. The attacker was shut out of the system by February 1, 2022. The information of anyone treated before February 1, 2022, may have been compromised.

The organization says that patients who received care prior to the amalgamation of SHN Centenary Hospital (also known as Scarborough Centenary Hospital), SHN General (also known as Scarborough General), and Birchmount Hospital (also known as Scarborough Grace) under one network in 2016 might be impacted as well as patients who received care at hospitals that were part of the former Rouge Valley Hospital Network, including RVHS Ajax and Pickering Campus or Ajax-Pickering Hospital.

The health network says a big pool of information may have been accessed, including patients’ names, dates of birth, marital statuses, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, OHIP numbers, insurance policy numbers, lab results, diagnosis information, COVID-19 immunization records. Staff names and numbers may have also been accessed.

SickKids logo
The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) is currently responding to a cybersecurity incident affecting several network systems and has called a Code Grey – system failure. The code went into effect at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 18, and is ongoing. While the attack only encrypted a few systems, SickKids stated that the incident caused delays in receiving lab and imaging results and resulted in longer patient wait times. On December 29th, SickKids announced that it had restored 50% of its priority systems, including those causing diagnostic or treatment delays. the LockBit ransomware gang apologized for the attack on the hospital and released a decryptor for free. “We formally apologize for the attack on sikkids.ca and give back the decryptor for free, the partner who attacked this hospital violated our rules, is blocked and is no longer in our affiliate program,” stated the ransomware gang.
General Motors logo

General Motors (GM) has announced that it was hit by a credential stuffing attack last month that exposed customer information. GM said that they detected the malicious login activity between April 11-29, 2022, and that hackers obtained access through credential stuffing. GM said in a statement “We believe that unauthorized parties gained access to customer login credentials that were previously compromised on other non-GM sites and then reused those credentials on the customer’s GM account.” The bad actors also redeemed loyalty points from some customers’ accounts for gift cards.

Customer data that was exposed in this incident includes first and last names, personal email addresses, home addresses, usernames and phone numbers for registered family members tied to the account, last known and saved favorite location information, currently subscribed OnStar package (if applicable), family members’ avatars and photos (if uploaded), profile pictures and search and destination information, car mileage history, service history, emergency contacts and Wi-Fi hotspot settings (including passwords).

Panasonic logo

The Conti ransomware group has claimed responsibility for an attack on Panasonic’s Canadian operations in February 2022. Panasonic confirmed that it had been the victim of a ransomware attack that impacted its systems, processes and networks. The company says that it has contracted with outside experts to investigate the attack as well as clean and restore servers and rebuild applications. No word was available about what if any data was stolen by the attackers. Panasonic says that relevant authorities have been informed.

Chicago Public Schools

Chicago Public Schools is facing a big breach of student data after a technology vendor experienced a data security incident. CPS has disclosed that it was recently informed that an unauthorized access incident took place at Battelle for Kids in December 2021. In that incident, a server that housed four years’ worth of personal information about students and staff from the 2015-16 through 2018-2019 school years was breached. Officials say that no Social Security numbers, no financial information, no health data, no current course or schedule information, no home addresses and no course grades, standardized test scores, or teacher evaluation scores were exposed in this incident.

The improperly accessed data included students’ names, schools, dates of birth, gender, CPS identification numbers, state student identification numbers, class schedule information and scores on course-specific assessments used for teacher evaluations. Employee data included names, employee identification numbers, school and course information and emails and usernames.

Holiday Season 101 – 5 Best Ways to Shop Safely Online

By |2022-12-02T15:00:54-05:00December 2nd, 2022|Cyber Security Awareness, Uncategorized, Website Security|

Holiday season is here, and it’s the time for giving. Everyone loves to give a gift and see the smile on their loved one’s face – but there’s a lot more that goes into buying the perfect gift. We are seeing more online shopping than ever before, especially with the huge influence of Amazon. In the wise words of our favorite superhero’s Uncle Ben, “with great power, comes great responsibility,” but in the case of the cyber world, “with great ideas, comes great risk.”

It’s unfortunate that there will always be someone looking to exploit the innocent, and it has certainly become a lot easier than ever through the world of cyber crime. There are an increasing number of ways for cyber criminals to attack you and your business! Threats and tools continue to get smarter and more sophisticated. Whether you’re clicking on a malicious link in a phishing email, accidentally transferring funds to a fraudulent account, or watching your business cripple from ransomware, it’s important to know the biggest cyber security threats against you, and how to fight against them.

Let’s start with the holiday season – here are the 5 best ways to shop safely online:

1. Never use public Wi-Fi networks to shop.

Public Wi-Fi from your local coffee shops are just that… public – meaning you never know who is on that network, and anyone with the know-how can compromise it. You can think of Wi-Fi this way: public Wi-Fi is like a public water fountain where you saw the person before you coughing on the spout. You certainly wouldn’t touch the spout without making it safe, and most people will ignore it all together. Private Wi-Fi is your own personal water bottle – sure you can share it if you want but no one has access except who you choose. Even better is a private Wi-Fi on a virtual private network (VPN), which is like having a room all to yourself to drink your own personalized filtered Fiji water. All this is to say, public Wi-Fi should only be used for your basic internet browsing, and you should always consider the potential consequences. Huge mega malls with free Wi-Fi are one of the biggest traps for cyber criminals – it’s like open season for hackers.

2. Beware of rock bottom prices

Put your hand up if you don’t love a good sale….No? No one? Everyone loves a good sale, but there’s a reason why everyday retailers won’t go below a certain price. Bottom line: if you’re paying rock bottom prices, expect a rock bottom product or no product at all. You will start to see a lot of social media advertisements across different websites with low prices on they’re “unbelievable” product, but it’s remarkably easy to set up a social media account and pay for advertisements, luring innocent people into buying a product that’ll never arrive. If you start seeing offers that look too good to be true, they probably are. Always double check the vendor, and see if the product is being sold on trusted sites like amazon and what their prices are.

3. Check for website securities

This is a very important step. Website securities are a tell-tale sign of a website that can or cannot be trusted. Look at this picture. What I mean by “website securities” is the padlock icon, and “https” displayed before the website URL. These two symbols show anyone on the website that any credit card transactions, social insurance numbers/social security numbers, login credentials, etc., are all secure transactions through encryption.

In technical terms, it means that the site you are visiting has a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate. Whenever you’re doing any online shopping, you have to be mindful of this. There is a significant difference between a website displaying “http” vs “https”. A website displaying “http” is not encrypting any information given throughout the website, meaning any hacker can access that information – including your credit card information. A basic rule is to never conduct transactions on a website without an SSL certificate.

4. Email marketing scams

The holiday season is when you’re going to start getting all the marketing emails from your favorite stores promoting their big sales. It’s no surprise that the number of fake marketing emails start to rack up as well. Imitation emails can be so well crafted, that it’s hard to distinguish between them and the real thing. Amazon, Best Buy, PayPal are just a few examples of companies hackers love to imitate during the holiday season. It’s important to be double checking all emails for validity, especially if you weren’t expecting an email from that company. Take the time to review our guide on how to identify phishing emails.

5. Don’t give personal info

A site that will ask for a lot of information in the process of payment are signs that it’s a scam. Typically, a website won’t need much else other than your name, payment method, mailing address and billing address. If the website starts to ask for additional information like your social insurance number/social security number, date of birth, and more personal information, it’s a sign that you might be getting scammed out of your money.

BONUS: Use credit cards

This is more about IF you do get scammed, rather than protection from scamming. Using a credit card is a safer and more secure way to conduct transactions, seeing how you’re not using your actual money but rather you’re using credit. When you report a scam to the authorities or to your bank – which you should always do – you’re more likely to receive your credit back rather than any funds from your debit account. It’s always important to stay ahead of the game when it comes to cyber protection. With the holiday season, it gets even more essential.

Feel free to Contact Us for more information.

2022: This Month in breach!

By |2022-06-02T14:11:43-04:00June 2nd, 2022|Business Continuity Solutions, Cyber Security Awareness, Dark Web Monitoring, Infrastructure Security, IT Support, Uncategorized, Website Security|

Every week there is more news coming out about recent data breaches. We are covering the most recent and most popular breaches that occur every month!

Take a look:

MAY

IKEA

Furniture and home goods giant IKEA announced that it had experienced a data breach in its Canadian operations that impacted an estimated 95,000 customers. The company said that sensitive customer information was mistakenly provided to an employee in an internal search between March 1 and March 3, 2022.

No specifics about the compromise data were offered beyond confirmation that no financial or banking information was accessed. IKEA says that it has notified any customers that were impacted by the breach and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

scarborough health network

Toronto healthcare provider Scarborough Health Network has disclosed that it has experienced a data breach. Officials say that an unauthorized actor gained access to the organization’s systems around January 25, 2022. The attacker was shut out of the system by February 1, 2022. The information of anyone treated before February 1, 2022, may have been compromised.

The organization says that patients who received care prior to the amalgamation of SHN Centenary Hospital (also known as Scarborough Centenary Hospital), SHN General (also known as Scarborough General), and Birchmount Hospital (also known as Scarborough Grace) under one network in 2016 might be impacted as well as patients who received care at hospitals that were part of the former Rouge Valley Hospital Network, including RVHS Ajax and Pickering Campus or Ajax-Pickering Hospital.

The health network says a big pool of information may have been accessed, including patients’ names, dates of birth, marital statuses, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, OHIP numbers, insurance policy numbers, lab results, diagnosis information, COVID-19 immunization records. Staff names and numbers may have also been accessed.

verizon

Verizon has announced that hackers obtained access to a database. The hacked database includes the full name, email address, corporate ID numbers, and phone number of hundreds of Verizon employees. According to reports, the hacker contacted Verizon to ask for an extortion payment of $250,000 to prevent the release of the stolen data. Verizon has said that they do not plan to pay.

Information exposed in the database includes employee names, email addresses, corporate ID numbers, and phone numbers. Verizon says that the database does not include Social Security Numbers, passwords or credit card numbers.

GM_Brandmarks_MASTER_20210202_RGB

General Motors (GM) has announced that it was hit by a credential stuffing attack last month that exposed customer information. GM said that they detected the malicious login activity between April 11-29, 2022, and that hackers obtained access through credential stuffing. GM said in a statement “We believe that unauthorized parties gained access to customer login credentials that were previously compromised on other non-GM sites and then reused those credentials on the customer’s GM account.” The bad actors also redeemed loyalty points from some customers’ accounts for gift cards.

Customer data that was exposed in this incident includes first and last names, personal email addresses, home addresses, usernames and phone numbers for registered family members tied to the account, last known and saved favorite location information, currently subscribed OnStar package (if applicable), family members’ avatars and photos (if uploaded), profile pictures and search and destination information, car mileage history, service history, emergency contacts and Wi-Fi hotspot settings (including passwords).

Chicago Public Schools

Chicago Public Schools is facing a big breach of student data after a technology vendor experienced a data security incident. CPS has disclosed that it was recently informed that an unauthorized access incident took place at Battelle for Kids in December 2021. In that incident, a server that housed four years’ worth of personal information about students and staff from the 2015-16 through 2018-2019 school years was breached. Officials say that no Social Security numbers, no financial information, no health data, no current course or schedule information, no home addresses and no course grades, standardized test scores, or teacher evaluation scores were exposed in this incident.

The improperly accessed data included students’ names, schools, dates of birth, gender, CPS identification numbers, state student identification numbers, class schedule information and scores on course-specific assessments used for teacher evaluations. Employee data included names, employee identification numbers, school and course information and emails and usernames.

APRIL

coke-logo

The new ransomware group Stormous claims they’ve pulled off a ransomware attack against The Coca-Cola Company, claiming that it snatched 161 gigabytes of data. The hacking group has been linked with Russian nationalist cybercrime following its public statement vowing to take action against companies that pulled out of Russia in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Financial data, passwords and commercial account records are said to be among the stolen data. Coca-Cola says that it is investigating the matter.

sunwing-airlines-logo-

Sunwing Airlines passengers were finding themselves delayed or stranded in airports in Canada and across the Caribbean after a cyberattack brought down boarding and check-in services maintained by Illinois-based service provider Airline Choice. The airline had been forced to manually check in passengers and handwrite boarding passes, causing massive delays for several days, with passengers stranded in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. The company in-turn had to subcontract flights with other airline carriers just to get some of its stranded passengers home.

costa rica flag

The Conti group has claimed responsibility for a ransomware attack on the federal government of Costa Rica that has caused trouble in several government agencies for more than a week. Government ministries impacted include Finance, experiencing impacts in customs and tax collection, Labor and the social security agency’s human resources system. Conti’s extortion site claims that the group has published 50% of the stolen data including more than 850 gigabytes of material from the Finance Ministry and other institutions’ databases. Reports say that the group has demanded a $10 million ransom, which the Costa Rican government has stated it will not pay.

Color-Panasonic-Logo

The Conti ransomware group has claimed responsibility for an attack on Panasonic’s Canadian operations in February 2022. Panasonic confirmed that it had been the victim of a ransomware attack that impacted its systems, processes and networks. The company says that it has contracted with outside experts to investigate the attack as well as clean and restore servers and rebuild applications. No word was available about what if any data was stolen by the attackers. Panasonic says that relevant authorities have been informed.

CitySprint

UK same-day delivery company CitySprint has informed its drivers of a data breach that may have exposed their personal information. The company says that an unauthorized party gained access to its iFleet internal management and routing system. While CitySprint says that it doesn’t think that drivers’ personal data was compromised, it can’t be sure.

Drivers may have had information exposed including photos of their driving license, vehicle pictures, and records of their weekly earnings.

Florida International University institution of Higher Learning

The BlackCat ransomware outfit has claimed they’re behind a ransomware attack at Florida International University. The group said that it has stolen a range of personal information from students, teachers and staff, amounting to 1.2 TB of data. Among the stolen data, the group says it obtained contracts, accounting documents, social security numbers, email databases and more. No further details about the stolen data was available at press time.

March 10th – March 31th

United Kingdom – Ministry of Defence

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense has suspended online application and support services for the British Army’s Defense Recruitment System after bad actors compromised some data held on applicants.

The army was informed of the break-in on March 14 along with a rumored threat to expose the stolen data on the dark web. The recruitment operations system is run by Capita, a vendor that handles marketing, processing applications and candidate assessment centers. No further information on what data was stolen or when systems will be restored to full operations has been released.

Microsoft

The Lapsus$ gang has released 37GB of source code that they snatched in a hit on Microsoft’s Azure DevOps server. Microsoft confirmed the incident, saying that the threat actors gained access through a compromised employee account.

The source code looks to pertain to various internal Microsoft projects, including for Bing, Cortana and Bing Maps. Microsoft made a blog post about its recent operations to track and potentially interfere with Lapsus$ last week. The company was quick to state, “Microsoft does not rely on the secrecy of code as a security measure and viewing source code does not lead to elevation of risk.” Lapsus$ is known to be a ransomware outfit, but no ransom activity was disclosed in this incident.

No information about consumer/employee PII, PHI or financial data exposure was available at press time.

Miratorg Agribusiness Holding

Russian meat wholesaler Miratorg Agribusiness Holding has suffered a major cyberattack that encrypted its IT systems. The attack was reported by Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia’s veterinary medicine and agricultural production and byproducts oversight body.

The attackers reportedly made use of the Windows BitLocker feature to encrypt files, possibly gaining access through a state veterinary information service. Rosselkhoznadzor has suggested that this may be a nation-state cyberattack. Miratorg Agribusiness Holding promised that attack will not affect its supply and shipments to Russian citizens.

Nation-state cybercrime is booming, especially around the Russia/Ukraine conflict.

Russia – Transneft

Anonymous is back at it, this time leaking documents stolen from the Omega Company, the research and development division of Russian oil pipeline company Transneft.

The hacktivist collective, who have publicly sided with Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion of the country, got ahold of 79GB of the company’s emails and published them on the leak site of the non-profit whistleblower organization Distributed Denial of Secrets. The stolen data includes invoices, equipment technical configurations, and product shipment information.

One unusual detail: the hackers responsible dedicated the hack to Hillary Clinton after she mentioned that Ukraine-aligned hackers should attack Russian targets in a recent interview.

March 3rd – March 10th

Washington State Department of Licensing

Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) experienced a data breach that has impacted approximately 650,000 former and current licensees. After discovering unexpected activity, the agency’s website was taken offline in January. At the time, no data loss was expected but that has since changed.

The exposed data includes former and current licensing information as well as licensees’ social security numbers, driver’s license or ID numbers and dates of birth.

pressreader

A cyberattack impacting PressReader, the world’s largest digital newspaper and magazine distribution platform, left readers in the US, UK, Australia and Canada unable to access more than 7000 publications. Some of the unavailable publications include The Guardian, Vogue, Forbes and the New York Times.

PressReader said it has resolved the issue and is working to make missed content available to users after experiencing an unspecified cybersecurity event. This may be a nation-state attack; the incident happened shortly after PressReader announced that it was removing dozens of Russian titles from its catalog and publicly stated that it would help the Ukrainian citizens access the news following Russia’s invasion of their country.

MonMedicalCenter_logo

West Virginia healthcare organization Monongalia Health System (Mon Health) has announced a data breach. The company operators of Monongalia County General Hospital, Preston Memorial Hospital, Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital and other healthcare centers, is informing patients and staffers that they had data stolen in December 2021. This is the second breach announcement in 3 months for Mon Health. Attackers did not gain access to the organization’s health electronic records systems.

Exposed data may include patient, employee, provider and contractor data including names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, health insurance claim numbers, medical record numbers, patient account numbers, medical treatment information, and various other data.

Samsung_Logo

The Lapsus$ hacking group just published a 190-gigabyte trove of confidential data including source code that it claims to have seized from Samsung Electronics in a ransomware attack.

Reports say that the stolen code contains the source for every Trusted Applet in Samsung’s TrustZone environment, which handles sensitive tasks such as hardware cryptography and access control. It may also include biometric unlock operation algorithms, the bootloader source for recent devices, activation server source code and the full source code used to authenticate and authorize Samsung accounts. Samsung says that they’re investigating the incident.

No information about consumer or employee PII, PHI or financial data exposure was available at press time.

February 24th – March 3rd

state bare of california

The State Bar of California is investigating a data breach after learning that a third-party website had published confidential information about 260,000 attorney discipline cases in California and other jurisdictions. The exposed data included case numbers, file dates, information about the types of cases and their statuses, respondent and complaining witness names.

give send go

The Christian fundraising platform GiveSendGo was a victim of suspected DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack earlier in February. This was in response to GiveSendGo’s public support to the Canadian Freedom Convey 2022, the trucker protest against government mandated COVID-19 vaccination laws.

GiveSendGo started raising funds after GoFundMe froze the convoy’s account having $10 million in donations. When the site began raising funds, it was then attacked and experienced unexpected downtime. Furthermore, in the aftermath of this cyberattack, the hackers leaked a cache of private information including the full names, donation amounts and partial location of many who donated to the Freedom Convoy’s cause.

IMP Group

Canadian aerospace and defense company IMP Group was the victim of a cyber attack in late February. The Nova Scotia company vying to replace Canada’s aging fleet of fighter jets came under an attack, with a computer virus infiltrating IMP Group’s servers through an email. Amid the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, much has been made of Russia’s attempt to attack allied countries with cyberwarfare.

Although it is not yet confirmed if Russia is responsible for the attack on the IMP Group, it has been confirmed that the attack came from outside of Canada. The company has been repairing servers and scanning for viruses since the attack. Though they have not specified what the hackers demands were, they have not paid any ransom to the attackers.

toyota

Toyota announced that it is shutting down its domestic factory operations briefly after a cyberattack at a supplier. The supplier, Kojima Industries Corp, has admitted to being attacked but offered no further information. It was not made clear how long Toyota’s Japanese factories, which total one-third of its production yearly, will be closed. However, closing the factories for a long period of time could result in major delays in shipment felt throughout the world.

February 17th – February 24th

National Health Service

A shocking report from the Daily Mail details the exposure of all sorts of sensitive data for thousands of patients served by the NHS. The information was exposed by an NHS service provider, PSL Print Management. Reports say that the exposed confidential files include hospital appointment letters for women’s health emergencies, test results of cervical screening and letters to parents of children needing urgent surgery. The information dates back as far as 2015, a huge no-no under data protection rules. The incident is under investigation.

city of baltimore

A report just released by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) details a business email compromise disaster that ended up costing the city of Baltimore more than $375,000. In this incident, bad actors managed to change the bank details kept on file for a vendor who had an agreement with Baltimore’s Mayor’s Office of Children and Family Success (MOCFS).

The cybercriminals contacted both MOCFS and Baltimore’s Bureau of Accounting and Payroll Services (BAPS) asking to have the vendor’s banking information updated to send payments to a different bank account at another financial institution. BAPS ultimately complied with the fraudster’s change request, then began sending electronic payments to the new address. You know how this one ends up. Ultimately, cybercriminals made off with $376,213.10. The vendor was not named, but the report noted that cybercriminals had gained access to the vendor’s email accounts through a phishing attack.

the internet society

Cybersecurity researchers recently announced the discovery of a trove of information belonging to ISOC in an unsecured Microsoft Azure blob. The blob was reported to contain millions of files with personal and login details belonging to ISOC members. ISOC has secured the blob but there’s no telling how long that data was exposed for or who may have seen it.

The member data exposed includes members’ full names, preferred language, the account ID, donation history, login credentials, social media tokens, email and street addresses, genders and similar personal information.

OpenSea NFT Trading Marketplace

Online NFT marketplace OpenSea has been embroiled in controversy after a cyberattack cost investors their NFT. There’s been a lot of back-and-forth on this one. A phishing attack perpetrated on the platform’s users is purportedly to blame for the incident that has so far left more than 30 of its users unable to access their NFTs, although some claims have been made on Twitter pointing to a flaw in the platform’s code. Reports say that the attacker has made somewhere between $1.7 – 2 million in Ethereum from selling some of the stolen NFTs. An estimated 254 tokens were stolen over three hours.

February 10th – February 17th

Oiltanking Fuel Storage

A ransomware attack has impacted German fuel tanking company Oiltanking. The company was ensnared in a massive ransomware attack that has disrupted operations at 17 European oil terminals including the busy Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp refining hub starting on January 29th. Other European companies are also involved including German oil trade company Mabanaft, SEA-Invest in Belgium and Evos in the Netherlands. The attack appears to have had the most impact on the processing, loading and unloading of cargoes. BlackCat ransomware is thought to be behind the incident.

Morley_Companies_Logo

Morley Companies, a business service provider to several Fortune 500 companies, announced that it had been hit with a ransomware attack that may have exposed sensitive information for more than 500,000 people. In a statement, the company said that “a ransomware-type malware had prevented access to some data files on our system beginning August 1, 2021, and there was an unauthorized access to some files that contained personal information.”, chalking up the delay in notifying possible victims of this exposure to the complexities of the incident investigation.

Morley Companies said the attack affected the information of “current employees, former employees and various clients.” The potentially compromised information leaked includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, client identification numbers, medical diagnostic and treatment information and health insurance information. The company is offering credit monitoring and identity theft protection for victims.

KPSNACKS2
Food company KP snacks, manufacturer of beloved British snacks like Hula Hoops, KP Nuts, Butterkist popcorn and Nik Naks, was hit with a ransomware attack in late January that may impact its production. Conti ransomware operators have claimed responsibility. The company informed retailers in early February that the attack had impacted its manufacturing and distribution, and that product shortages may continue into March.

Researchers discovered samples of some of the data it had infiltrated on its dark web leak page, including confidential employee data such as home addresses and phone numbers, employment contracts, credit card statements and even birth certificates.

1920px-british-council-logo.svg-

British Council, the global organization for promoting British culture and administrators of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam, leaked over 144,000 files containing student records due to an unsecured Microsoft Azure blob. Researchers determined that the blob contained the personal information of hundreds of thousands of British Council English course learners and students from around the world. The group points to a contractor as the culprit for the leak.

Exposed data includes a student’s full name, email address, student ID, student status, enrollment dates, duration of study and other information.

February 3rd – February 10th

rr donnelley

Major marketing company RR Donnelly has disclosed that they had data stolen in a December cyberattack attributed to ransomware. The Conti ransomware group is suspected to be to blame. In the attack on December 27, 2021, the company experienced a systems intrusion that led it to shut down its network to prevent the attack’s spread. That led to disruptions for customers, with some unable to receive printed documents required for vendor payments, disbursement checks and motor vehicle documentation. The Conti ransomware gang claimed responsibility on January 15 and began leaking 2.5GB of the stolen data that has since been removed.

crypto com

Crypto.com, a platform that allows users to swap tokens between blockchains, publicly announced an incident in which a flaw in the platform’s security allowed cybercriminals to snatch an estimated $31 million in cryptocurrency. The company disclosed that 483 users were impacted by unauthorized cryptocurrency withdrawals on their accounts amounting to 4,836.26 ETH, 443.93 BTC, and approximately $84 000 in other cryptocurrencies. In response to this incident, the company is adjusting its protocols to include safeguards like requiring all customers to re-login and set up their 2FA token to ensure only authorized activity would occur and a new policy where the first withdrawal to a whitelisted address must wait 24 hours among other measures.

city of tenino washington

The City of Tenino, Washington is down $280,309 in public funds according to the Washington State Auditor’s Office after a city employee fell for a phishing message that launched a business email compromise scam. Reports say that former Clerk Treasurer John Millard fell victim to a phishing message and paid cybercriminals a boatload of money, some without city council approval. The official reportedly initiated 20 automated clearing house payments from the city’s bank account to multiple out-of-state bank accounts. News outlets are also reporting that a warning was sent out to clerks about the phishing scam immediately but that didn’t stop this disaster from happening.

International Committee of the Red Cross

The International Committee of the Red Cross has revealed that hackers have stolen data from a Swiss contractor that stores it for them. The stolen data includes information about over 515,000 highly vulnerable people that it has served, recipients of aid and services from at least 60 affiliates of the organization worldwide. The Red Cross says it typically reunites 12 missing people with their families every day through that program. As a result of this cyberattack, The International Red Cross has been forced to temporarily halt a program that reunites families torn apart by violence, migration or other tragedies. A spokesperson for the ICRC told news outlets that there have been no demands from the hackers in exchange for stolen data and that they were working with specialized firms to recover.

2021: Breach News, Year in Review!

By |2022-01-13T11:53:05-05:00January 13th, 2022|Business Continuity Solutions, Cyber Security Awareness, Dark Web Monitoring, Infrastructure Security, IT Support, Website Security|

For most people, the year 2021 will be remembered for the infamous COVID-19 ongoing pandemic. However, for cyber criminals, it will be remembered as one of the most lucrative years to date. Cyber crime continues to grow, and in 2021, it reached heights like never before.

Take a look back at some of the biggest data breaches of 2021:

robin hood

Financial services platform Robinhood made the news after disclosing a data breach on November 3. The company blamed the security incident on vishing. Threat actors obtained access to the organization’s customer support systems by obtaining system access over the phone. This is the same technique that proved successful in the 2020 Twitter hack. According to reports, after accessing the data, the cybercriminals then demanded an extortion payment to keep the data safe.

Bleeping Computer reported that two days after Robinhood disclosed the attack, a threat actor named ‘pompompurin’ announced that they were selling the stolen information of 7 million Robinhood customers’ for at least five figures, which is $10,000 or higher on a hacking forum.

Key Takeaway: Stock trading became trendy with meme stocks gaining traction on social media as new investors entered the market quickly and easily through apps like Robinhood. But FinTech and similar sectors also caught the eye of cybercriminals who stepped up their hacking efforts looking for quick scores of cryptocurrency and financial data.

Helpful Resource: Make sure you’re protecting your client’s credentials with strong security. That starts with building strong passwords with our resource Best Password Security Tips – How Hackers Steal Your Passwords.

ea sports

On June 10, the hackers posted a thread on an underground hacking forum claiming to be in possession of EA data, which they were willing to sell for $28 million. According to reports, the hackers used the authentication cookies to mimic an already-logged-in EA employee’s account and access EA’s Slack channel and then tricked an EA IT support staffer into granting them access to the company’s internal network.

EA did not pay the extortionists, who then dumped the data on the dark web. Hackers leaked an estimated 751GB of compressed EA data containing FIFA 21 source code on a dark web forum.

Key Takeaway: Cybercriminals are hungry for data and that includes proprietary data about projects and products. This trend also tracks with medical research and pharmaceutical data.

Helpful Resource: Develop expertise in all things ransomware that will help you defend against threats to your data. This breach could have been prevented with Cyber Security Awareness Training.

Microsoft-Logo-2012-present

Microsoft reported that suspected Chinese nation-state actors that it identified as Hafnium exploited a flaw in Exchange that gave them access to an unspecified amount of data or email accounts. In its blog, Microsoft stated that Hafnium had engaged in a number of attacks using previously unknown exploits targeting on-premises Exchange Server software.

Microsoft estimated that 30,000 or so customers were affected. This flaw impacted a broad range of customers, from small businesses to local and state governments and some military contractors. The hackers were able to steal emails and install malware to continue surveillance of their targets. Patches were quickly made available, but the damage had been done.

Key Takeaways: This incident had an impact that is still being measured. Companies that quickly patched the flaw fared better than companies that didn’t. This incident is a reminder that risk can come from unexpected directions at any time.

Helpful Resource: Cybersecurity horrors lurk around every corner, lying in wait for unwary organizations. Learn how to identify the different types of cyber attacks and how to combat them with our resource 7 Types of Cyber Security Attacks with Real-Life Examples.

Newfoundland and Labrador

A cyber attack crippled the healthcare system of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador on October 30. The ransomware attack hit scheduling and payment systems, causing interruptions in patient care including the cancellation of all non-urgent imaging and medical appointments as well as a reduction in chemotherapy sessions and significant complications for the province’s COVID-19 response.

Eastern Health reported that their payment systems to suppliers and vendors were also targeted by the attack.

Hackers stole personal information connected to both patients and employees in the Eastern Health and Labrador-Grenfell Health regions of Newfoundland and Labrador’s healthcare system in this attack.

Key Takeaway: Hacking and ransomware against everything medical was the big trend of 2021 as COVID-19 treatment and research data became valuable in dark web markets. Bad actors will continue to hunt for data from medical sector targets because it often results in a quick harvest of valuable PII and financial information.

Helpful Resource: Securing against ransomware has become so essential. Hackers have no conscience, and will use your data against you to extort you. You can protect yourself against ransomware with proper Business Continuity Solutions

jbs

International meat supplier JBS SA was hit by a crippling ransomware attack in late May 2021. The world’s largest meat producer, Brazil-based JBS has operations in 15 countries and serves customers worldwide including the US, Australia and Canada.

The company said that it was immediately in contact with federal officials and brought in a “top firm” to investigate and remediate the incident. JBS initially stated that the attack only impacted some supplier transactions and no data was stolen, but later admitted that data was exposed. JBS ended up paying an $11 million ransom to the REvil ransomware group after the attack caused meat shortages across the US, Australia and other countries.

Key Takeaway: Industrial production of all sorts from food to computer chips was firmly in cybercriminals sights in 2021 as part of double and triple extortion ransomware operations, and that likely won’t change in 2022

Helpful Resource: How healthy is your cybersecurity culture? You should be testing your Network Security on a quarterly basis!

Colonial Pipeline Company logo

On May 6, 2021, a major Russian hacking gang successfully mounted a ransomware attack on major US fuel transporter Colonial Pipeline. The company is the operator of the largest fuel pipeline in the US, moving fuel into states on the Eastern seaboard, transporting more than 100 million gallons of gasoline and other fuel daily from Houston to the New York Harbor.

The point of entry for the gang was reportedly a single compromised employee password. Using that stolen password, the DarkSide affiliate slipped inside Colonial Pipeline’s security and inserted DarkSide’s ransomware. The company purportedly paid a ransom of 75 bitcoin or $4.4 million. In addition, the gang stole an estimated 100 gigabytes of data that had the potential to be highly sensitive. Shortly after this attack, DarkSide went dark for good.

Key Takeaway: Cyberattacks against infrastructure targets have become a hot topic, and companies that own and operate them should be cognizant of their elevated risk.

Helpful Resource: The hackers will always go after the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain, the end user. This hack would have never happened with proper Business Continuity Solutions, and Cyber Security Awareness Training.

Be Cyber Smart – Best Tips for Cyber Security Awareness Month🔐💡

By |2021-10-21T08:26:36-04:00October 21st, 2021|Cyber Security Awareness, Infrastructure Security, IT Support, National Cyber Security Awareness Month, Website Security|

Get Familiar with the Cyber Basics

At a time when we are more connected than ever, being “cyber smart” is of the utmost importance. This year has already seen more than a fair share of attacks and breaches, including the SolarWinds and Kaseya breaches as well as high-profile attacks on the Colonial Pipeline and other critical infrastructure. Furthermore, as has been underlined by these recent breaches, cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated with more evolved bad actors cropping up each day. Luckily, there are several steps that we can take on a daily basis to mitigate risks and stay one step ahead of malefactors. Here are a few quick tips:

  1. Enable MFA
    Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds that necessary second check to verify your identity when logging in to one of your accounts. By requiring multiple methods of authentication, your account is further protected from being compromised, even if a bad actor hijacks your password. In this way, MFAs make it more difficult for password cracking tools to enable attackers to break into accounts.
  2. Use strong passphrases/password manager
    This may seem obvious, but all too often securing strong passphrases/password managers is overlooked. People spending more time online during the pandemic has certainly contributed to more bad actors prowling for accounts to attack. Using long, complex, and unique passwords is a good way to stop your account from being hacked, and an easy way of keeping track and remembering your passwords is by using a password manager.
  3. Perform software updates
    When a device prompts that it’s time to update the software, it may be tempting to simply click postpone, and ignore the message. However, having the latest security software, web browser, and operating system on devices is one of the best defenses against online threats. So, don’t wait – update.
  4. Do your research
    Common sense is a crucial part of maintaining good online hygiene, and an intuitive step to stay safe online is to do some research before downloading anything new you are downloading to your device, such as apps. Before downloading any new learning app on your device, make sure that it’s secure by checking who created the app, what the user reviews say, and if there are any articles published online about the app’s privacy and security features.
  5. Check your settings
    Be diligent to double check your privacy and security settings and be aware who can access your documents. This extends from Google docs, to Zoom calls, and beyond. For meetings on Zoom, for example, create passwords so only those invited to the session can attend, and restrict who can share their screen or files with the rest of the attendees.

Being cyber smart and maintaining stellar online hygiene is the best way to protect yourself and others from cyber-attacks. No single tip is foolproof but taken together they can make a real difference for taking control of your online presence. Following these tips is also easy, and free. By taking preventive measures and making a habit of practicing online safety, you can decrease your odds of being hacked exponentially – and prevent lost time and money, as well as annoyance.

Fundamentals for Phishing Defenses

From ransomware to SolarWinds, the cybersecurity space has been as hectic as it has ever been over the last 12-24 months. However, for all the emerging threats and news that are cropping up on the horizon, phishing – one of the oldest pain points in cybersecurity – is continuing to quietly wreak havoc and is as big of a threat as it has ever been.

Despite often being overlooked in terms of hype, phishing has been a mainstay in the cybersecurity threat landscape for decades. In fact, 43 percent of cyberattacks in 2020 featured phishing or pre-texting, while 74 percent of organizations experienced a successful phishing attack last year alone. That means that phishing is one of the most dangerous “action varieties” to an organization’s cybersecurity health. As a result, the need for proper anti-phishing hygiene and best practices is an absolute must.

With that in mind, here are a few quick best practices and tips for dealing with phishing threats.

  1. Know the Red Flags
    Phishes are masters of making their content and interactions appealing. From content design to language, it can be difficult to discern whether content is genuine or a potential threat, which is why it is so important to know the red flags. Awkward and unusual formatting, overly explicit call outs to click a hyperlink or open an attachment and subject lines that create a sense of urgency are all hallmarks that the content you received could be potentially from phish and indicate that it should be handled with caution.
  2. Verify the Source
    Phishing content comes in a variety of ways; however, many phishes will try to impersonate someone you may already know – such as a colleague, service provider or friend – to trick you into believing their malicious content is trustworthy. Don’t fall for it. If you sense any red flags that something may be out of place or unusual, reach out directly to the individual to confirm whether the content is authentic and safe. If not, break-off communication immediately and flag the incident through the proper channels.
  3. Be Aware of Vishing and Other Phishing
    As more digital natives have come online and greater awareness has been spread about phishing, bad actors have begun to diversify their phishing efforts beyond traditional email. For example, voice phishing – or vishing – has become a primary alternative for bad actors looking to gain sensitive information from unsuspecting individuals. Like conventional phishing, vishing is typically executed by individuals posing as a legitimate organization – such as a healthcare provider or insurer – and asking for sensitive information. Simply put, it is imperative that individuals be wary of any sort of communication that asks for personal information whether it be via email, phone, or chat – especially if the communication is unexpected. If anything seems suspicious, again, break-off the interaction immediately and contact the company directly to confirm the veracity of the communications. Phishing may be “one of the oldest tricks in the book,” but it is still incredibly effective. And although it may be hard to spot when you may be during a phishing attempt, by exercising caution and deploying these few fundamentals, individuals and organizations more broadly can drastically mitigate the chances of falling victim to a phishing attack
Why You Should Consider a Cyber Career

Cybersecurity is one of the hottest sectors today, with new threats and challenges emerging each day. And with that, there is a huge push being undertaken by both business and education sectors to attract individuals toward a degree and career in cyber. Interested in joining this exciting new workforce? Here are a few reasons why pursuing a degree and career in cyber might be right for you.

  1. Hot Job Market
    To say that the cybersecurity jobs market is hot would be a huge understatement. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job market for information security analysts will grow by 32 percent by 2028 – making it one of the fastest growing job sectors – while Cybersecurity Ventures has found that there will be 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs in 2021. This means that cybersecurity professionals are among the most in-demand around the world and will be for years to come.
  2. Infinite Room for Personal and Professional Growth
    Beyond just the ability to get a cybersecurity job, thanks to an ever-growing set of career tracks, cybersecurity offers a variety of different options for professionals to find a position that fits nicely with their own interests. Cybersecurity professionals work in everything from compliance to stress testing cyber defenses and software, so there are virtually limitless ways that professionals can apply their skills and look to grow them.
  3. Investment in advanced cybersecurity pays for itself
    Due to the shortage of cybersecurity talent in the workforce, businesses and educational institutions are constantly rolling out new avenues by which to make cybersecurity careers more affordable. For example, new grants and scholarships are now becoming available each day for individuals interested in cybersecurity careers, while many businesses are beginning to offer tuition reimbursement or other financial perks. This means that a degree in cybersecurity may be much more affordable than you originally thought.
  4. Graduate Growth
    In addition to interesting “on the groundwork” that cybersecurity professionals get to take-on every day, there is also a growing selection of highly tailored cybersecurity graduate programs that can further academic knowledge in cybersecurity as well. For example, graduate degrees ranging from Applied Cryptography to Network Vulnerability and Detection are now being offered through colleges and universities nationwide. Additionally, as part of this deep-dive, cybersecurity professionals will also get the opportunity to network with other students from various backgrounds allowing them to open further opportunities for future positions or businesses.
Prioritizing Cybersecurity in a Hybrid Workplace

Currently, employees are more connected than ever. The hybrid workplace is here to stay, and for employees, this means relying on connected devices from their home office setups. According to recent data, smart home systems are set to rise to a market value of $157 billion by 2023, and the number of installed connected devices in the home is expected to rise by a staggering 70% by 2025. In this new normal where smart devices and consequently online safety are a must, here are some tips for securing those devices.

  1. Remember smart devices need smart security
    Make cybersecurity a priority when purchasing a connected device. When setting up a new device, be sure to set up the privacy and security settings on web services and devices bearing in mind that you can limit who you are sharing information with. Once your device is set up, remember to keep tabs on how secure the information is that you store on it, and to actively manage location services so as not to unwittingly expose your location.
  2. Put cybersecurity first in your job
    Make cybersecurity a priority when you are brought into a new role. Good online hygiene should be part of any organization’s onboarding process, but if it is not, then take it upon yourself to exercise best practices to keep your company safe. Some precautions include performing regular software updates and enabling MFAs.
  3. Make passwords and passphrases long and strong
    Whether or not the website you are on requires it, be sure to combine capital and lowercase letters with numbers and symbols to create the most secure password. Generic passwords are easy to hack. If you need help remembering and storing your passwords, don’t hesitate to turn to a password manager for assistance.
  4. Never use public computers to log in to any accounts
    While working from home, you may be tempted to change scenery and work from a coffee shop or another type of public space. While this is a great way to keep the day from becoming monotonous, caution must be exercised to protect yourself and your company from harm’s way. Make sure that security is top of mind always, and especially while working in a public setting, by keeping activities as generic and anonymous as possible.
  5. Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when idle
    The uncomfortable truth is, when Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are on, they can connect and track your whereabouts. To stay as safe as possible, if you do not need them, switch them off. It’s a simple step that can help alleviate tracking concerns and incidents.

These are just a few simple steps towards achieving the best online safety possible. Staying safe online is an active process that requires constant overseeing at every stage – from purchasing and setting up a device, to making sure that your day-to-day activities are not putting anyone at risk. By following these steps, you are doing your part to keep yourself and your company safe from malicious online activity.

If you’ve read this post and you’re thinking you need help with keeping your employees trained from cyber threats, contact us to get professional help!

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