Commentaries and Analyses

Hackers Targeting Healthcare with Financially Motivated Cyberattacks
Jessica Davis reports: Healthcare organizations are increasingly being targeted with financially motivated cyberattacks by hackers attempting to gain access to valuable patient records and others sensitive information, according to FireEye researchers. While it’s been clear for some time that hackers have targeted the healthcare sector given many providers operate on outdated or unsupported systems,...
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Intel, Google, Microsoft, and others launch Confidential Computing Consortium for data security
Khari Johnson reports: Major tech companies including Alibaba, Arm, Baidu, IBM, Intel, Google Cloud, Microsoft, and Red Hat today announced intent to form the Confidential Computing Consortium to improve security for data in use. Established by the Linux Foundation, the organization plans to bring together hardware vendors, developers, open source experts, and others to...
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Are thedarkoverlord’s victims entitled to damages from Athens Orthopedic Clinic? Georgia Supreme Court to rule.
Bill Rankin reports: In the spring of 2016, a cyber thief calling himself the “Dark Overlord” hacked into the databases of a Clarke County medical clinic and emerged with the personal information of an estimated 200,000 patients. The Athens Orthopedic Clinic refused to pay the hacker’s ransom and advised current and former patients to...
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Cancer research organizations are now the focus of Chinese hacking groups
Charlie Osborne reports: Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) groups are honing in on cancer research institutes in recent cyberattacks in order to steal their work, researchers say. Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and claimed the lives of 9.6 million individuals in 2018. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one...
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Cyberattacks targeting post-secondary students on the rise, but most not taking sufficient steps to protect their data
Nicole Bogart reports: Cyberattacks targeting post-secondary students are becoming increasingly common, but new research shows only 15 per cent of Canadian students have taken extra steps to protect their online data. According to research from cybersecurity firm McAfee, publically disclosed cyberattacks targeting the education sector increased 50 per cent year-over-year in the first quarter...
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