Petronella Cybersecurity News

North Carolina proudly claims the slogan “First in flight” thanks to the first manned flight carried out by the Wright brothers in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Now North Carolina can claim another first in flight. UPS’s first drone delivery was carried out in the state capital, Raleigh. The use of drones is expected to not […]

Hard on the heels of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s lengthy Facebook post that the social network was doubling down on privacy and ensuring users’ data remains safe, Facebook faces yet more negative publicity. KrebsOnSecurity recently announced that an internal investigation has found between 200-600 million Facebook user passwords stored in insecure plaintext format. Meaning any of […]

Citrix Systems announced an apparent network penetration by hackers. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida technology business was appraised by a suspected problem last Wednesday by the FBI. They have launched a full investigation. Stan Black, Citrix’s CSIO, said in his blog post on Friday that while the hackers appear to have accessed and stolen business documents, […]

Ransomware is here with a vengeance. Cybercriminals are seeing far too much reward for their efforts to stop now. Coverware recently released their 2018 Q4 Ransomware Marketplace report with numbers that confirm the trend. Victim company sizes have increased so their payouts have increased. Coverware has also seen a 39% increase in attacks on backups, […]

Jackson County, Georgia finds its coffers down by $400,000 this week thanks to cybercriminal ransom. A ransomware infection blocked access to the county IT systems for most of the local government with the exception of its website and 911 services. Though the county has hired a cyber-security consultant, they have yet to confirm how the […]

Charlie Osborne at ZDNet has revealed a data breach of epic proportions. Bob Diachenko and Vinny Troia discovered over 809 million records in MongoDB. The information offered included varying degrees of private information including email addresses, zip codes, phone numbers, physical addresses and dates of birth. “Although not all records contained the detailed profile information […]

Chief Information Security Officers play an essential part in the success of your business security, yet recent studies have found that only 13% of organizations are truly prepared for attacks on their network, mobile, and physical security. Without a CISO, the majority of security readiness falls on the CEO who usually has an overflowing to-do […]

Over 974,000 people are being notified by The University of Washington Medicine. For a three-week period in December, their information was exposed on the internet. A misconfigured server on the UW Medicine database was the cause of the breach. A patient discovered the leaked information while doing a Google search on themselves and contacted the […]

I sat down with Alex Pearce of Ellis & Winters LLP, the current chair of North Carolina Bar Association’s Privacy & Data Security Committee to discuss the current trends he sees in security for lawyers.  PETRONELLA: What is the biggest threat to firms that already have cybersecurity systems in place? PEARCE: One of the biggest threats is […]

Updating your WordPress content management software to version 5.0.3 is URGENT! RIPS Technologies told Hacker News of a remote code execution vulnerability that affects all previous versions. That’s over six years of vulnerability. The remote code execution attack can be utilized by any nefarious user with at least an author account via a combination of […]

Joel Ortiz, a twenty-year-old college student from California accepted a plea deal and now faces a ten-year prison term for his SIM Swapping Attacks. Ortiz was arrested last year for stealing more than five million dollars in cryptocurrency. Roughly forty victims were affected. SIM swapping involves attackers posing as their target and soliciting a SIM […]

Valentine’s Day week was not a good week for dating sites. Three online dating sites, OkCupid, Coffee Meets Bagel, and Jack’d, all suffered an array of security incidents. TechCrunch reported on Sunday that OkCupid has been dealing with a rise in account takeovers. Hackers are then hackers changing the account email address and password, making […]

Hackers are getting more sophisticated at hiding their malware and data theft traps. Listen as Craig walks through how he discovered a cyberattack that would have ensnared anyone who wasn’t well-versed in cybersecurity awareness, then click here to learn how to not fall for tricks like these yourself.

Original story at CBS17.com RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – As automakers add more high-tech features to vehicles, a new report says those features are making cars more and more vulnerable to hijacking. Consider this scenario: You’re on your way to someplace, and you’re ready to jump into our car, except you can’t open it because you’re locked […]

Originally posted on CBS17.com. RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Your car is spying on you and you probably don’t even know it. Late-model vehicles generate tons of data and automakers are now finding ways to collect and sell that data to third parties — but who really owns that information and should it be sold? For […]

Did you know your car is spying on you? It knows where you’re going, how fast you’re going there, what you’re listening to, and more! Where is your personal data going and who’s getting it? Tune in to CBS 17 after Superbowl LIII to learn more.

The rise of smart cars and in-vehicle computer systems summons cyber-security to the forefront of automotive industry priorities. Today’s consumers stay connected beyond their vehicle interior with things like navigation, hands-free calling, driver assist features, and in the future autonomous vehicles. To stay ahead of cyber threats, in 2015 the auto industry established an Automotive […]

Over 24 million mortgage documents were exposed this month for an extended period of time. The security lapse was first reported by Zack Whittaker of TechCrunch Wednesday afternoon who assisted Bob Diachenko in tracing the leak back to Ascension. “On January 15, this vendor learned of a server configuration error that may have led to […]

George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia is now delivering food to on-campus students via autonomous wheeled robots. Estonia-based Starship Technologies partnered with Sodexo, a company that manages dining on George Mason’s campus to bring twenty-five delivery robots to the University. There is a $1.99 delivery charge for the new service. Senior Vice President of business […]

As the government shut down continues, more and more damage is being done to federal law enforcement agencies. The negative impact on cybercrime investigations is particularly troublesome. Without the proper personnel in place due to the prolonged furlough, the government cannot get clearance approved for its agents and analysts. One anonymous FBI source told KrebsOnSecurity, […]