Ransomware DataBreachToday.com

Cyber Defense Agency Aims to Bolster Protections Against Chinese Intrusion
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is issuing final rules to safeguard U.S. sensitive data from potential Chinese intrusions, requiring Americans involved in restricted transactions with Chinese entities to adopt stringent cybersecurity measures.

DDoS Attacks Primarily Target Logistics, Government and Financial Entities
A spate of distributed denial-of-service attacks during the end-of-year holiday season disrupted operations at multiple Japanese organizations, including the country's largest airline, wireless carrier and prominent banks. The effect of the attacks has been temporary.

Developers Listed as Public Contact Points Targeted in Phishing Campaign
A supply chain attack that subverted legitimate Google Chrome browser extensions to inject data-stealing malware is more widespread than security researchers first suspected. So far researchers have identified 36 subverted extensions collectively used by 2.6 million people.

Integrity Technology Group Built Botnet for Chinese Hackers, US Treasury Says
The Department of Treasury blacklisted Integrity Technology Group, declaring transactions with the company to be off-limits for U.S. financial institutions and persons. The effect will likely have more symbolic than actual disruptive effect.

iPhone Maker Introduced Feature Without Explicit Consent
Apple's artificial intelligence-led photo analyzer is raising privacy concerns months after the company appears to have enabled the feature by default. It uses a combination of on-device machine learning and encrypted cloud-based processing.

Indiana Attorney General Fines Westend Dental $350K in 2020 Ransomware Hack
An Indiana dental practice agreed to pay the state $350,000 and implement a long list of data security improvements following an alleged 2020 ransomware breach "cover up" that came to light when state regulators investigated a patient complaint about unfulfilled requests for dental X-rays.

Data Protection, Firewall Stocks Surge as Vulnerability Management Stocks Struggle
Fortunes diverged for publicly-traded cybersecurity companies in 2024, as the technology category they played in and market share they held largely determined their fate. Investors last year looked favorably upon companies in the data protection space, with Commvault and Rubrik recording big gains.

Do Hyeong Kwon Extradited to US For Allegedly Defrauding Investors Out of Billions
Authorities say Do Hyeong Kwon, former CEO of Terraform Labs, appeared in a Manhattan federal courtroom Thursday after facing extradition from Montenegro over allegations he defrauded investors out of billions of dollars while misrepresenting his company’s cryptocurrency and other products.

Suspect Crew Members of the Eagle S Cannot Leave the Ship
Finnish police say they've identified as suspects eight crew members of an oil tanker linked to a Russian "shadow fleet" of sanctions busting ships in an investigation into an incident that broke submarine cables in the Baltic Sea. Authorities escorted the tanker into Finnish waters on Dec. 25.

Experts: New Mandates Could Be Difficult, Costly for Many Entities
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' proposed overhaul of the 20-plus-year-old HIPAA Security Rule aims to drastically improve the state of healthcare sector cybersecurity, but the potential new requirements could mean difficult and expensive heavy lifting for many regulated entities.

Hackers Reportedly Target Treasury Department Offices Overseeing Economic Sanctions
A Chinese hack of the U.S. Department of Treasury targeted offices tasked with overseeing economic sanctions and financial investigations, as experts warn Beijing is increasingly escalating attacks on American critical infrastructure while preparing for potential future conflict.

Flaw Bypasses Clickjacking Defenses, Enables Account Takeovers
Hackers are exploiting the split-second delay between two mouse clicks to carry out sophisticated clickjacking attacks, tricking victims into authorizing transactions or granting access they never intended. "DoubleClickjacking" manipulates users into granting OAuth and API permissions

As healthcare entities embrace generative AI tools, it's critical they take a holistic approach addressing privacy and security governance, said Dave Perry, digital workspace operations manager, St. Joseph's Healthcare in Ontario, who discusses how his organization is tackling those challenges.

9 Telcos Have Been Breached by Beijing-Backed 'Salt Typhoon,' White House Says
U.S. telecommunications giants AT&T and Verizon Communications believe they have finally ejected Chinese cyber espionage hackers from their networks. The White House said the "Salt Typhoon" nation-state hackers infiltrated at least nine U.S. telcos' infrastructure, and have been hard to eject.

Cameron Wagenius Suspected of Extorting Snowflake Customers Over Stolen Data
A serving member of the U.S. Army has been arrested on a two-count indictment tied to the theft and sale of "confidential phone records," reportedly tied to the theft of terabytes of data from AT&T, Verizon and other customers of cloud data warehousing platform Snowflake.

Opponents Say Restructuring Will Undermine OpenAI's Security Commitments
OpenAI's attempt to convert to a for-profit company is facing opposition from competitors and artificial intelligence safety activists, who argue that the transition would "undermine" the tech giant's commitment to secure AI development and deployment.

Researcher Demonstrates Bitpixie Attack Tactics to Extract Encryption Key
A previously patched flaw in Windows BitLocker disk encryption feature is susceptible to attacks allowing hackers to decrypt information, new research has found. Security researcher Thomas Lambertz extracted data from the system memory, including the master key.

Fully homomorphic encryption can safeguard highly sensitive health data related to rare diseases, underserved populations and clinical trials as it is shared with medical researchers, said Kurt Rohloff, co-founder and CTO of Duality Technologies, who said projects to apply it are underway right now.

Attackers Exploiting OS Command Injection Vulnerability
Hackers are exploiting a high-severity command injection vulnerability in Chinese-manufactured Four-Faith industrial routers. Typical customers of Four-Faith use the routers for remote monitoring, control systems, supervisory control and data acquisition networks.

2025 Is Likely to See Balanced Approach to AI Across Industries
The AI landscape is set to transform in 2025 with pragmatic approaches to implementation replacing the experimental fervor. This shift will span industries and developer ecosystems. Technologies will ride on the transformative power of AI and the responsibility that comes with it.