The Healthcare Industry Cybersecurity Task Force’s report on healthcare cyber security echoes a similar study on medical device security issued by Synopsys and the Ponemon Institute. On the heels of a damning study by Synopsys and the Ponemon Institute, which provides a blow-by-blow accounting of the many problems with medical device security, a federal task… Read More
Four Important Lessons from the WannaCry Ransomware Attacks The recent WannaCry ransomware attacks put cyber security on the front page of every newspaper in the world. Now, everyone knows what ransomware is and how destructive it can be, but will anything change? Following are four critical lessons that both organizations and individuals should take away… Read More
Why Your Employees Keep Clicking on Phishing Emails, and How You Can Stop It The 2017 Verizon Data Breach Report is out, and it’s full of great news – if you’re a hacker. The study, which examined over 1,900 breaches and more than 42,000 attempts in 84 countries, showed that cyberespionage and ransomware are on… Read More
Hacked Companies Are Facing Data Breach Lawsuits Filed by Financial Institutions Data breaches aren’t cheap to clean up. Just ask Rosen Hotels, whose costs to clean up a 2016 breach could end up exceeding $2.4 million. Shockingly, that’s below the $4 million average cited by IBM. In addition to direct costs, such as fines, labor… Read More
Who should be held responsible when a company’s systems get breached? Historically, the CIO, the CISO, or both have shouldered the lion’s share of data breach responsibility; well over half of security decision-makers expect to lose their jobs if a hack happens at their organizations. However, breaches don’t happen in vacuums, and CIOs and CISOs… Read More
“ClearEnergy” May Have Been Fake News, But Threats Against ICS / SCADA Security Are Quite Real Accusations of “fake news” rocked the cyber security industry last week after infosec provider CRITIFENCE implied that it had detected a brand-new “in the wild” ransomware variant called ClearEnergy that posed a clear and present danger to ICS and… Read More
Over the past year, the healthcare industry has been battered by an epidemic of ransomware attacks. The problem has become so ubiquitous that it is making its way into works of fiction: A ransomware attack on a hospital in a major city is the focus of an upcoming episode of the NBC drama Chicago Med.… Read More
Don’t depend on a cyber insurance policy to cover your losses after a ransomware attack. Hackers have discovered that there’s fast, easy money in holding enterprise systems hostage, especially in industries that process and store highly sensitive data, such as education and healthcare. The U.S. Department of Justice recently reported that ransomware attacks quadrupled between… Read More
Cyber Insurance Coverage: a Brave, Uncertain New World for Insurers and Policyholders Despite the escalating intensity and frequency of cyber attacks, fewer than 1/3 of U.S. businesses have purchased cyber insurance policies. A recent report by Deloitte provides insight into why organizations are deciding to go without cyber coverage, as well as why many insurers… Read More
New York State Cybersecurity Regulations for Financial Institutions Could Be Model for Other States The first phase of the New York state cybersecurity regulations, which apply to insurance companies, banks, and other financial institutions operating within the state, went into effect on March 1. While the insurance and finance industries are already highly regulated, New… Read More
Jackpotting! Are ATMs at the end of every rainbow? ATMs were designed to protect their cash vaults, not their computer components, which leaves them vulnerable to “jackpotting” cyber attacks. Earlier this month, the American Bankers Association announced changes to its Bank Capture incident tracking system, which logs data on ATM attacks, as well as robberies,… Read More
As compliance costs skyrocket, standards grow increasingly complex, and the cyber threat environment evolves, organizations are turning to RegTech solutions to automate their compliance processes and improve their overall cybersecurity posture. Compliance with regulatory and industry standards, such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, FedRAMP, and SSAE 16 SOC reporting, are a burdensome yet necessary part of… Read More
How RegTech Simplifies Governance, Risk, and Compliance Complying with standards such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, FISMA, and SSAE 16 SOC reporting is complex, costly, and time-consuming, especially for organizations that must comply with multiple standards. You may have heard the term “RegTech” mentioned as a solution. What is RegTech, and how can it help your… Read More
Consumers love shopping online and are abandoning malls for mobile shopping apps in droves. However, online shopping environments offer multiple opportunities for hackers to steal payment card data. Even worse, as more brick-and-mortar stores implement card chip technology to defeat skimmers and other forms of POS system fraud, thieves are gravitating toward card-not-present (CNP) ecommerce… Read More
Education Cyber Security Vulnerabilities and What Schools Can Do About Them K-12 schools, colleges, and universities are attractive targets for hackers. Their networks contain an enormous amount of identifying information on staff members, students, and students’ families, including names, birth dates, addresses, Social Security numbers, and even health records. Additionally, educational institutions are frequently connected… Read More
Back to School: Education Cyber Security K-12 school systems, colleges, and universities are being increasingly targeted by hackers, yet education cyber security is as woefully lacking as other industries, as these recent incidents illustrate: In November 2016, Columbia County School District in Georgia admitted to a breach of personal information belonging to its employees and… Read More
Be Prepared for these New and Emerging Ransomware Threats Ransomware threats are everywhere, and the problem is going to get much worse before it gets any better. According to a recent survey, about half of all businesses have experienced a ransomware attack at least once in the last 12 months, and a staggering 85% had… Read More
Internet-connected smart toys, a popular holiday gift item, have vulnerabilities that put both children and parents at risk of data breaches and identity theft. Smart toys, which connect to the internet and offer children a personalized, interactive play experience, were a very popular gift item this past holiday season. However, the interactive features of smart… Read More
“The dreams I have today become my blueprints for tomorrow.” Michael Peters
Both brick-and-mortar and ecommerce retail stores make attractive targets for hackers, especially during the holidays. The 2016 holiday shopping season is in full swing, and fortunately for retail stores, consumers are not hesitating to reach for their wallets: Cyber Monday sales hit a record of $3.39 billion, surpassing estimates, and Thanksgiving and Black Friday receipts… Read More
In a new report, UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity offers suggestions to President Elect Trump Now that the election is over, the nation’s attention has turned to President Elect Donald Trump and what a Trump Administration will mean for cyber security. Notably, information security was the only tech-related topic Trump addressed directly on his… Read More
The recent Mirai botnet DDoS attacks were the largest on record – and they were likely masterminded by teenagers. In October, a massive DDoS attack on the Dyn DNS “Managed DNS” infrastructure brought down a number of major websites, including PayPal, Twitter, Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify. The attack was accomplished through the use of the… Read More
Cyber Security Due Diligence Has Become a Fundamental Part of M&A Transactions Data breaches and a failure to comply with governmental and industry standards can impact a company in many ways, as Yahoo is finding out the hard way. The company’s recent disclosure of a massive data breach, which resulted in 500 million user accounts… Read More
For Years, Yahoo Put Usability Ahead of Cybersecurity The massive Yahoo data breach, which compromised 500 million user accounts and has put its planned acquisition by Verizon at risk, happened because the company repeatedly put product user experience ahead of security, the New York Times reports: Six years ago, Yahoo’s computer systems and customer email… Read More