In-brief: The new year won’t bring relief for the healthcare industry, which faces a range of new, sophisticated attacks seeking paydays and access to electronic health records, a new survey by Experian finds.
Threats
Home wireless networks are set for a makeover
In-brief: In our latest Security Ledger podcast, we talk with Luma founder and CEO Paul Judge, a serial entrepreneur (Ciphertrust, Purewire, Pindrop) whose latest venture seeks to bring enterprise-quality wireless to the home market, improving both security and management along the way.
Report: Millions (and Millions) of Devices Vulnerable in latest Mirai Attacks
In-brief: Attacks that took 900,000 broadband routers offline in Germany have hit other countries as well, as security experts warn that the number of devices vulnerable to attack could number in the millions.
Ransomware Used Against Muni Known As Harsh, Virulent
San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) was hit with a ransomware attack over the weekend, disrupting a number of agency computer systems including email, the MTA said in a statement on Sunday. And security experts say that the ransomware used has a reputation for virulence. Computer terminals observed at MTA (or “Muni”) stations displayed a message that read, in part, “You Hacked. All Data Encrypted” over the weekend, paralyzing toll collection operations and forcing the MTA to open its turnstiles and let the public ride for free. According to a report by The San Francisco Examiner claims that the ransomware thieves have infected more than 2,000 of the agency’s 8,000 computers, affecting not only fare collection, but also systems that assign routes to bus drivers. The thieves are demanding $73,000 in ransom, paid in bitcoin. In a statement on Sunday, San Francisco MTA said that the attack “disrupted some of our […]
Department of Defense Sets Ground Rules for Hackers
In-brief: The U.S. Department of Defense published guidelines on Monday for independent security researchers to disclose vulnerabilities in DoD’s public facing systems. The program, managed by the firm HackerOne, provides a legal route for hackers to disclose vulnerabilities to the military.
