Petronella Cybersecurity News

Hong Kong zombie stocks are on the rise, and thanks to hackers they’ve never been more dangerous. Confused? Don’t worry, we will explain. In all stories involving zombies, the threat begins when a virus turns someone who should be dead into a walking carrier of the virus. The carrier spreads the virus when it tries […]

“There is a connection between Kaspersky and Russian intelligence, and I’m absolutely certain that Russian intelligence would want to use that connection to their advantage.” “I don’t use Kaspersky Lab products… I would not [advise my family to use it].” Those quotes are from former deputy director of the CIA Michael Morell and Trump administration […]

Stolen credit card data can go for up to 15¢. Stolen medical records can net anywhere from $30 to $500, and that’s why you’re going to see more and more cyberattacks on medical facilities. Eerie County Medical Center was recently hit with ransomware. Instead of paying the requested $44,000, they unplugged for six weeks. CBS […]

When a company or organization is hit by a ransom ware attack, there are a slew of questions that need to be answered. How did the hackers breach the network? How much data has been lost? What do we do to make sure this never happens again? Of course these questions need to be answered […]

Locky is a ransomware that seems to be an intermittent threat. It’s here for a while, infecting computers in a flurry, then it disappears for a while. Then a new iteration pops up later, and it, too, disappears. Well, Locky’s back again, this time in two forms. Locky looked to be a big threat for a […]

We’ve constantly preached that cybercriminals were going to evolve their methods, and the cows have come home. We recently told you about a new type of malware that works around detection by loading itself directly to a computer’s memory instead of as a file, and now we’ve got some more bad news for you. You […]

Have you ever thought about the ramifications of having a data breach compromise the personal data of your clients? In the past you could issue an apology, make a note about beefing up cybersecurity, buy some credit protection for affected people and call it a day. Not anymore. Now you could be facing a lawsuit. […]

If you’ve kept up with your cybersecurity news, then you know that the medical industry has a long road ahead of itself if that number is going to go down in 2017. For example, did you know that on average there was one health records breach every day in 2016? What about that the month […]

A report surfaced yesterday that a leading anti-malware product was leaking terabytes of data. Among its clients are some of the top 100 companies in the US. According to the report by DirectDefense, Carbon Black’s Cb Response is leaking all kinds of sensitive data, including usernames/passwords, cloud and app store keys, and various trade secrets. The […]

If you haven’t been living with the stone men in Old Valyria, you’ve probably heard of the megahit TV show Game of Thrones, which is HBO’s biggest cash cow right now. (And no, if you aren’t a hardcore viewer of the show, you probably won’t get that joke.) Regardless of where you live, you may […]

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 […]