British Library Confirms Ransomware Attack Caused Outages
After announcing that it had experienced a major outage at the beginning of the month, The British Library confirmed on Nov. 14 that the disruption was due to a ransomware attack. And recovery has been slow. Three weeks after the attack, the library’s website is still offline. The IT outage affects the library’s online systems,…
CISA, FBI Issue New Warning Following Las Vegas Cyberattack
The FBI and U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are urging critical infrastructure organizations to implement mitigation techniques to thwart a cybercriminal group known as Scattered Spider that targets major companies and their IT help desks. A joint advisory describes the hacking group, also known as Octo Tempest and UNC3944, as having expertise in social…
EU Tightens Cybersecurity Requirements for Critical Infrastructure and Services
The European Union’s NIS2 Directive 2022/2555 is legislation aimed at improving the security and resilience of network and information systems across the EU. Although the legislation is already in effect, EU members have until October 2024 to transpose the directive into national law. Each organization encompassed by the directive will be legally obligated to live…
McLaren Health Care revealed that a data breach impacted 2.2 million people
McLaren Health Care (McLaren) disclosed a data breach that occurred between late July and August. The security breach exposed the sensitive personal information of 2,192,515 people. McLaren Health Care is a nonprofit health care organization based in Grand Blanc, Michigan, USA. It is a $6.6 billion, fully integrated health care delivery system committed to quality,…
EU Will Stand Up Office to Enforce AI Act, Says EU Lawmaker
The European Union will soon set up a dedicated office to oversee the implementation of the AI Act, especially by big-tech companies such as OpenAI, said a key European lawmaker. The European Parliament in June approved regulations intended to mitigate AI’s potential for negative effects on society. The AI Act entered final negotiations this month…
UK FCA Fines Equifax 11 Million Pounds for 2017 Data Breach
A British financial regulator fined American credit reporting agency Equifax 11 billion pounds for its role in one of the world’s largest data breaches. Chinese military hackers in 2017 exploited a vulnerability in Equifax’s online dispute portal to download the personal data of nearly 14 million residents of the United Kingdom as well as approximately…
Ransomware attack on MGM Resorts costs $110 Million
In September the hospitality and entertainment company MGM Resorts was hit by a ransomware attack that shut down its systems at MGM Hotels and Casinos. The incident affected hotel reservation systems in the United States and other IT systems that run the casino floors. The company now revealed that the costs from the ransomware attack…
Cybersecurity Funding Rises by 21% in Q3 2023, Pinpoint Search Group’s Report Indicates
Pinpoint Search Group, a leading cybersecurity recruitment firm, has unveiled its Q3 2023 cybersecurity funding report. The quarter saw a 21 percent rise in funds raised compared to Q3 2022, painting an optimistic picture of the industry’s growth trajectory, characterized by strategic advancements and heightened interest. In Q3 2023, Pinpoint Search Group’s research team recorded…
Canadian Flair Airlines left user data leaking for months
The leak consisted of publicly accessible environment files hosted on the flyflair.com website. Flyflair.com belongs to the Canadian ultra-low-cost carrier Flair Airlines, founded in 2005. According to SimilarWeb, the website attracts 3.2 million monthly visitors. Environment files are commonly used in software development to manage environment-specific settings or sensitive information such as API keys and…
Canada Confirms DDoS Attack Disrupted Airport Arrival Kiosks
A recent, brief disruption at Canadian airports is a reminder that Russia-aligned hacking groups’ bark remains worse than their bite. The problems began Sunday afternoon at multiple airports including Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, which reported that there had been “a national system failure of the automated kiosks” that was “causing a slowdown at border control.” As…
