Of Note

DHS Pushes for Common Cyber Incident Reporting Definitions

Jose Rascon reports: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a new report looking to wrangle the different avenues in which the Federal government and its agencies report cyber incidents in a more ‘reportable’ fashion. The report, titled “Harmonization of Cyber Incident Reporting to the Federal Government” and released on Sept. 19, comes...

Schools Are the Most Targeted Industry by Ransomware Gangs

Waqas reports that based on research by Sophos, the education sector is the most vulnerable and targeted by ransomware attacks. KEY FINDINGS 80% of lower education providers and 79% of higher education institutions reported ransomware attacks in the last year. Education is the most targeted industry by cybercriminals, primarily motivated by the high percentage...

NYC schools are tightening cybersecurity. Some educators fear unintended consequences.

Michael Elsen-Rooney reports: Following two high-profile data breaches, New York City’s Education Department has moved to shore up its cybersecurity protocols, increasing its vetting of software vendors and tightening email access for schools and parent leaders. Because of the new protocols, the school year has started without approvals for scores of programs, including popular...

“I’m Not Pro-Russia and I’m Not a Terrorist!” —- InfraGard and Airbus Hacker “USDoD” Unveils His New Campaigns

The first time DataBreaches remembers hearing about the man who calls himself “USDoD” was when he posted a sales listing for member data from InfraGard. He had not only managed to acquire data on 80,000 members of an organization dedicated to protecting critical infrastructure, but his revelation of his method exposed some embarrassingly inept...

Au: Federal government could pay millions in compensation over asylum seeker data breach

Ben Doherty reports: The Australian government may be liable for tens of millions of dollars in compensation to asylum seekers after it posted their personal details online while they were in immigration detention. The mass data breach, discovered by Guardian Australia in 2014, resulted in information being used, in some cases, to allegedly threaten asylum seekers,...

AlphV responds to MGM incident and sloppy reporting

AlphV has posted a statement about their attack on MGM Resorts. They also post some scathing criticisms of journalists and news outlets for reporting inaccurately and not verifying sources. Of note, their statement also asserts, “The ALPHV ransomware group has not before privately or publicly claimed responsibility for an attack before this point. Rumors...

IOCTA spotlight report on malware-based cyber-attacks published

Following the Internet Organised Crime Assessment (IOCTA) 2023, today Europol published the spotlight report “Cyber Attacks: The Apex of Crime-as-a-Service”. It examines developments in cyber-attacks, discussing new methodologies and threats as observed by Europol’s operational analysts. The report also outlines the types of criminal structures that are behind cyber-attacks, and how these increasingly professionalised groups are...

HC3: Sector Alert: Akira Ransomware

September 12, 2023 TLP:CLEAR Report: 202309121400 Akira Ransomware Executive Summary Akira is a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) group that started operations in March 2023. Since its discovery, the group has claimed over 60 victims, which have typically ranged in the small- to medium-size business scale. Akira has garnered attention for a couple of reasons, such as...

Chambersburg Area School District answers some questions about ransomware attack, won’t say if they paid hackers

A statement and FAQ by the Chambersburg Area School District, as shared by TriState Alert, appears below.The district offers its reasons (translation: excuses) for not answering the questions parents and the public really want to know:  did the district pay ransom, and was personal information acquired by the attackers? Although the district did not...