1. Kaiser Permanente says data breach exposed information on nearly 1,000 Sacramento-area patients
The personal information held by Kaiser on 990 Sacramento-area patients was breached in September by an unknown and unauthorized individual. The cybercriminals had access to an email account with access to data including date of birth, gender, provider name, payer name and benefits information, along with other medical-care-specific information.
Unlike credit card and other financial information, personal health histories do not change and can be used to convince individuals that a scam is actually legitimate. At DiamondIT, we have tools and systems in place to identify, analyze and proactively monitor for any compromised or stolen employee and customer data. This prevents personal information from being used against you, your customers or employees.
2. Government contractor’s internal server breached; $1 million recovery
Miracle Systems, a U.S. government contractor providing IT, engineering and other services to more than 20 federal agencies, suffered 3 data breaches between November 2018 and July 2019. The malware attack was distributed via a malicious email attachment. Email account credentials from these incidents were advertised as available on the Dark Web. So far, Miracle Systems has lost up to $1 million in downtime, new security software and new server installation.
Monitoring your business’ presence on the Dark Web is just one way to protect your company from cybercrime. Protect yourself by knowing what information is on the Dark Web about you and your business.
3. Brute force attacks are the preferred method for spreading ransomware
Safeguarding passwords remains one of the most powerful tools you can have in your arsenal against cyber intrusions. Brute force attacks, where hackers use a hit-and-miss method to obtain passwords and personal identification numbers (PIN), automatically generate a high number of consecutive guesses as to the value they want – in other words, they automatically generate possible passwords or PINs to gain access to your accounts. More than 30% of ransomware attacks are brute force attacks.
Minimize your exposure to brute force attacks by making sure your employees are using strong, unique passwords for their accounts through comprehensive, regular awareness training.
4. Few employees receive cybersecurity training
The precipitous rise in phishing scams and malware attacks has made employee cybersecurity training a critical component of any cyber defense strategy. However, a recent report by Chubbs indicates that many businesses aren’t providing cybersecurity training.
The report found that only 31% of employees receive cybersecurity training, while 70% of companies claim to have “excellent” or “good” cybersecurity standards.
As data breaches continue to make headlines and damage businesses’ bottom lines, it seems that too many organizations are unnecessarily putting themselves at risk. Comprehensive employee awareness training is an affordable way to bolster your defensive posture, and it can make a significant impact on the most pressing threats facing businesses today.
5. Ransomware outbreak affects 3 Alabama-based health care providers
Emergency procedures have been implemented at 3 Alabama health care providers after ransomware was detected on their networks, leaving their services open only to urgent appointments and surgeries.
The ransomware Ryuk was used previously in a highly disruptive attack on several U.S. newspapers late in 2018.
Few industries require the attention to cybersecurity that the medical industry does, as there is no room for error when caring for patients and their personal information. DiamondIT maintains a health network for you, so you can maintain healthy patients.