Petronella Cybersecurity News

When you think of the word “jackpot,” you probably picture a slot machine spitting out piles of coins. ATM jackpotting is the same thing, except it’s an ATM spitting out cash. It’s not new in Europe or Asia, but it’s relatively unheard of here in the US. That’s expected to change, according to a warning issued […]

It was reported a few days ago that electronic health records company Allscripts had been the victim of a ransomware attack. It’s bad enough that their operations were interrupted, but now they’re being sued for it to boot. Surfside Non-Surgical Orthopedics from Florida is suing on behalf of their clients who were impacted by the […]

It’s impossible to have missed all the talk about Russian hacking over the last year, so you would think the last thing any US tech company would do its to let Russians look for vulnerabilities in security software, but that’s just what some major tech companies that are used by the US government have done. […]

Yet another hospital has suffered a ransomware attack. This time the victim is Adams Memorial Hospital in Indiana, where an employee noticed that things didn’t look quite right back on January 11, shortly before the network went down and the files were renamed “imsorry”. The results of the attack weren’t as devastating as another recent […]

A giant in the electronic health records industry, Allscripts, reported that they were hit by a ransomware attack recently. Casualties in that attack include data centers in Raleigh and Charlotte, NC. The ransomware attack started in the wee hours of January 18 and had become a major incident by 6:00 that morning. Microsoft, Cisco, and […]

By now you probably know the drill when it comes to ransomware. Don’t open suspicious email attachments and if you do happen to get infected, make sure you have a backup you can restore from. The recent ransomware attack on Hancock Health in Greenfield, Indiana, didn’t go that way. First of all, the infection didn’t […]

With a new year come New Year’s Resolutions. We’ve got a few suggestions for your IT New Year’s Resolutions. They can save you money, headache, and a lot of trouble. If you don’t break them after the first month, of course. New Passwords Are you still using the same password you’ve always used? Are you using a […]

Another year is drawing to a close, and with it comes reflection on the year that was. Let’s dive right into some 2017 cybersecurity stats. Cyberattacks have been climbing and are expected to do so. Experts estimate that the monetary damage from cyberattacks will hit $6 trillion worldwide by 2021. That’s double what it was […]

Would you believe that 50% of all events where the confidentially or availability of an organization’s information is compromised are caused by people within the organizations? Unfortunately, you don’t get to choose because according to the Verizon 2015 Data Breach Investigation Report that’s a simple fact. We’ve talked about insider security breaches before, but what […]

In many cyberattacks the thing that’s stolen isn’t digital currency or money through ransomware, it’s simply information. Most people think of social security and credit card numbers when they think of sensitive information, but a hacker can steal basic things like full names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers and still have a successful haul. […]

We’ve reported plenty of ransomware cases, yet some people still think it couldn’t happen to them. Maybe they’ll think otherwise when it strikes closer to home, which is the case as ransomware hits North Carolina government offices. The government of North Carolina’s most populous county, Mecklenburg, home to Charlotte, suffered a ransomware attack after an […]

If you had a gold coin worth $4.5 million in gold alone, you would be pretty serious about protecting it, right? Well, the Bode Museum in Berlin, Germany thought they were serious about protecting the “Big Maple Leaf” coin. After all, museum heists happen mostly in movies, and this particular coin happens to have a […]

Karim Baratov has pleaded guilty to the massive Yahoo hack that compromised billions of Yahoo accounts in 2014. Baratov, a Canadian citizen born in Kazakhstan, was arrested at his home in Toronto. Baratov has revealed details of his operation. He generally gained access to accounts by spearphishing. Specifically, he would send emails that appeared to come from […]

You may have heard by now that Uber, the ride-sharing company, was hacked last year. It was a data breach that involved the personal information of 57 million users and drivers including names, phone numbers, and email addresses. To make matters worse, Uber didn’t tell anybody about the data breach. The company has taken a number […]

Would you believe that only 35 years ago, China wasn’t even nearly the top manufacturer in the world? In fact, up until the 1970s and 80s, 60% of Chinese citizens worked in agriculture, which meant that the average per capita income was only 1/3rd of sub-Sahara Africa. But then Chinese manufacturing exploded, and so did […]

Do you remember about three months ago when there was talk that Kaspersky Lab may be in cahoots with the Kremlin? It was pretty shocking at the time, and it was a pretty big deal when the Department of Homeland Security decided it was a credible enough threat that they told government agencies they should […]

We’ve told you about how the auto industry has shut off devices that can be installed in cars and used to disable or locate a vehicle if the owner doesn’t make a payment. We’ve told you about dolls that are connected to the internet but were left with security vulnerabilities that could allow a hacker […]

When you go to the hospital, you have faith that you can rely on your medical records, right? That wasn’t the case for Stjepan Tot. Tot died of cancer and, as a lawsuit filed by his estate, wasn’t able to determine when his symptoms first appeared because “his medical records failed to accurately display his […]

In 2013, individuals at Presence Health lost operating room schedules that had the private medical information of patients on them. They discovered the problem and reported the incident to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights (OCR) like you are required to do, but they made a huge mistake because they […]

Just because non-profits are not profit focused doesn’t mean that they don’t still need money. Just like any business, money is what keeps a non-profit’s doors open. Unlike other businesses though, if a non-profit doesn’t receive enough money then it won’t just be the people it employs in trouble when it has to close down, […]