Petronella Cybersecurity News

We have been reporting for quite a while now that the cyber security within the US government, in general, is just NOT up to par.  The recent breach we have discussed over the last week or so really highlighted that fact.  It was well-known even before this Russian cyberattack but not much has really been […]

The DoD will begin including CMMC cyber security requirements in select solicitations beginning in 2021. Are you ready? It’s really not surprising that the DoD is concerned, especially if you have been following along with our last few blog posts about the massive breach that has compromised major US Governmental departments. As you probably know, […]

Every day, the information we learn about the FireEye hack just keeps getting increasingly worse. Last week we wrote about the hack occurring; yesterday we reported that not only was FireEye impacted, but the US government was, as well… Along with businesses and other governments across the globe; and today, we are starting to understand […]

We wrote last week about the irony of FireEye being successfully infiltrated by hackers, and we cut them some slack because we realized that the attack was highly sophisticated…  FireEye is a $3.5 billion Cyber Security firm that has some big and important clients, like the US government, and though Russia is saying that the […]

GoDaddy employees were the target of a sophisticated (and successful) cyber attack… Again. GoDaddy is THE biggest domain registry across the globe.  In this scam, hackers were able to lure GoDaddy employees into transferring control and/or ownership of specific domains over to them, closely mimicking a ploy conducted in March, in which bad actors used […]

I’m not sure who exactly needs to hear this?  But for those in the back: Hackers.  Have.  No.  Shame. They not only give zero flips that there’s a deadly pandemic raging here in the US, but they are using the vulnerabilities created by virtual class- and boardrooms to their advantage… To extreme degrees. Just ask […]

In “news-that-comes-as-a-surprise-to-absolutely-nobody-paying-attention-but-is-still-noteworthy, Chris Krebs (who has been telling anyone that would listen for over a week now that he knows it’s only a matter of time before he is let go), respected Head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), was fired last night around 7 p.m. via a tweet… exactly two weeks to […]

Based on some confusing and potentially conflicting information we have found, we thought it was extremely important to clarify all expectations that the DoD has of its primes, subs and vendors. From listening to podcasts, watching and attending webinars, and reading any and every publication and white paper we can get our hands on, one […]

Well, isn’t that ironic? It’s not a good look… You peddle in protecting businesses from cyber attacks, only to fall victim to a successful cyber crime, yourself. But to be completely fair, this was a highly sophisticated and systematic attack (payback, perhaps?  That’s pure speculation, by the way!) by what appears to be a concentrated […]

Penalties: Case Studies (An Excerpt from Craig’s newest book: “Ultimate Guide to CMMC: How to Access Millions in Government Contracts”) As we have established, it is clear that the “self-reporting” and “honor system” for government contractors who are required to abide by NIST 800-171 to gain government contracts is NOT working. But just because everyone […]

“CMMC certification is your Driver’s License on the Information Superhighway.” -Katie Arrington And if that’s the case (which it is), then the self-assessment required by the new DFARS Interim Rule is your permit… One that you must attain before December 1st, 2020 if you want to keep your car on the road- or your contract […]

Intrigue. Subterfuge. Deception. Suspense. Is this a new James Patterson novel?  No, but it could very well be…  This is the tale of a new kind of attack – an attack in the Digital Age, where one person, clicking on an expertly-executed devious email and opening an innocuous-looking Google Doc, allowed hackers in 2020 to […]

US Intel Officials warn that Americans are being targeted by foreign spies on Zoom and other video chat platforms. We have been following the saga that is Zoom security since the beginning of the work-from-home boom stemming from the pandemic, and even as Zoom attempts to update its security, more bad press keeps popping up. […]

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has played a huge role in assisting physicians during the pandemic.  Which may sound a little crazy at first, but if you think about it, actually makes a lot of sense. One of the best ways to keep the disease from spreading, as we all know by now, is by limiting human-to-human […]

BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR EMAILS. We have warned you before that cybercrminals are exploiting the boom in remote worker brought on by the Coronavirus, and we will keep warning you, because this is a trend that likely isn’t going anywhere.  Now, hackers are using fake Zoom and WebEx emails to steal login credentials AND download […]

As we have previously reported, the spotlight glaring down on teleconference giant, Zoom, during this Covid-19 lock-down has uncovered some pretty major security breaches. Fortunately for those quarantined around the globe, it appears that the company is putting some real effort into fixing those issues. Zoom 5.0 Update Zoom is apparently working on updates to […]

Working from home during the global pandemic has allowed the nations of the world to keep their economies limping along while they search for a fix, but it has come with a price.  Many remote workers’ home offices are utilizing Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, to to log in, but they lack the level of […]

I don’t think we can stress this enough… Cybercriminals have ZERO shame. They don’t even blink at exploiting a global pandemic for their own personal gain.  How do we know that?  By the increase in ransomware and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks during global lock down, when  the need to access networks and online businesses is […]

With the halt of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) audits by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office (HHS) for Civil Rights (OCR), the healthcare industry is seeing a decline of about 2% annually in compliance with HIPAA’s Security Rule (NIST 800-66).  With that, however, has been a rise in […]

It’s a lot easier to get away with bad deeds when the attention isn’t on you… Which is a lesson Zoom is learning right about now,  as the business booms in the wake of the global pandemic. In addition to all the other privacy concerns we outlined in our previous article about Zoom, a recent […]