Petronella Cybersecurity News

A senior security analyst at a cybersecurity consulting firm appears to have been hacked by a hacker who doesn’t like cybersecurity analysts. The victim is one Adi Perentz, who is a Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst at Mandiant, a cybersecurity consulting firm that was bought by FireEye for a billion dollars a little over three years ago. […]

It was the all the rage in 2009, and you probably still hear people say it today. Ever since Apple launched their, “There’s an app for that commercial” people have loved saying it, and they’ve had plenty of opportunities because there’s an app for everything today. Sleep machine apps, apps that show a flame on […]

Would you store your money at a bank that only protects your money with some fencing and a padlock? Of course not. There’s a reason banks have their vaults within sight of the front door, because nothing says peace of mind like 2 tons of steel standing between your money and a thief. Unfortunately, the […]

FedEx has been officially schooled, directly from The School of Hard Knocks, on the importance of cybersecurity. Hopefully they are learning their lesson. Just a few months ago, the delivery giant fell victim to the WannaCry ransomware virus that was being passed around, which was bad enough.  But more recently, they were infected with the […]

Ransomware. Total worldwide damages are expected to exceed $5 Billion in 2017 alone.  This is an increase of over 1,500% in two years.  The trend of hitting healthcare organizations does not appear to be going anywhere.  In fact, experts predict that it will have quadrupled by 2020. Hackers target humans. Blackhatters have begun focusing their […]

In another major breach involving healthcare providers’ patient data being exposed on an unsecured site for nearly two years, University of Iowa Health Care reports that in April of this year, they discovered that over 5000 patients’ sensitive information had been posted online, unencrypted, since May 2015, on a site that develops applications. On April […]

A simple bait-and-switch con lined a hackers’ pockets with over $7 million in stolen currency. CoinDash, an Israeli Ethereum-trading startup group, had a slight glitch in their Initial Coin Offering (ICO).  During the ICO, the company allowed its investors to send tokens to its “smart contact address” in exchange for their new currency, Ethereum.   […]

NotPetya, malware that was designed to permanently damage hard drives, has impacted companies providing medical transcription services in over 60 countries, and has officially disrupted hospitals in the American Midwest. Nuance Communications, a Burlington, MA-based company that provides voice transcription services for healthcare providers primarily located in the Wisconsin and other Midwest states, announced yesterday […]

After discovering a potentially devastating bug in the code they use in their video cameras, a maker of high-end security cameras, Axis Communications, has taken the lead in patching an issue that, if exploited, would allow the hacker to crash or even take remote control of the device. Hopefully others in the industry will follow […]

In 2009, Vladimir Putin shut down the Russian gambling industry. Not through high taxes or constricting regulations, but he actually made gambling illegal in Russia. The entire gambling industry disappeared overnight because of its ties to Georgian criminals who were thought to be running most casinos. But if you haven’t heard about Russia’s gambling ban […]

The CIA created an app called TideCheck that is a secret vehicle for HighRise malware; malware was designed to seize SMS on Android smartphones, according to a report recently released by Wikileaks. The good news is that this version, dated from back in late 2013, only works on Android versions 4.0-4.3.  It must also be […]

A company wanted to pitch their bug finding code to a big Samsung, and what better way to show the value of a product than to run it on Samsung’s software? When Andrew Karpov of Program Verification Systems checked Samsung Tizen, the open-source Linux-based operating system powering a ton of Samsung products, including TVs, mobile […]

It’s a cautionary tale of why you should make sure any vendors you use are as tight with their security as you are. (Or tighter.) The data, which included names, phone numbers, and PINs of Verizon customers who had called the mobile provider’s customer support in the last six months was left on an Amazon […]

After a $155 million fine levied in May by the Department of Justice (DOJ), and with the threat of a class action lawsuit looming, it appears that eClinicalWorks (eCW) may have learned their lesson.  But is it too little, too late? Doug Brown is a managing partner at Black Book, which is a firm that […]

Cleveland Medical Associates was hit with ransomware back in April and has ordered identity protection service for the roughly 22,000 patients whose identities were at risk. “Wait a second,” you might be saying. “They need to order identity protection service because of ransomware?” Possibly. Regulators are starting to classify ransomware as a data breach, particularly […]

The subprime auto industry is notorious for predatory sales practices. That’s not to say that all sub-prime auto dealers take advantage of people, but when someone has to choose between accepting a high interest rate on a car or not being able to go to work there’s the opportunity. In fact, subprime auto dealers sell […]

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a code amber warning, the second-highest threat level, discussing the hackers targeting a number of companies that run energy facilities, including nuclear power facilities. It’s not known whether the hackers were attempting to steal industrial secrets or if they’re trying to cause damage to the systems […]

If you’ve read the news in the last year or two, you’ve heard of ransomware. The nefarious malware infects systems, locks away data and doesn’t release it until you’ve paid a ransom in Bitcoins, often a few hundred dollars. This can be a major annoyance for an individual, personal computer user, but it can be disastrous […]

We’ve all seen kids throw tantrums in stores before. No matter how many times their parents shush them or threaten them with timeout, the kid is going to let the entire world know how badly they want that Nerf gun or doll. What if a kid wanted a toy so badly that instead of throwing […]

Jason Pierre-Paul had it good. He was drafted by the New York Giants in the first round of the NFL draft and agreed to a 5 year $20.5 million deal. He lived up to his expectations and was a key player for the Giants until 2015. Pierre –Paul plays defensive end, which means he uses […]