Petronella Cybersecurity News

It’s a sequel nobody wanted to see. A few years ago, Kmart was one of the big names that suffered from a malware infection that stole customer credit card information. Last week, news started trickling in that it was happening again. As usually happens in these cases, financial institutions started seeing a pattern in stolen […]

Despite an overall lack of confidence in the security of medical devices, less than 10 percent of manufacturers and only five percent of users actually test the security of their devices each year.  And even though both the providers and the manufacturers voice concern over this issue, it does not appear that an increase in […]

Samba is open-source networking software that runs on the vast majority of today’s operating systems (OS), including such giants as Windows and Linux.  One reason for its popularity is that it allows non-Windows OS’s to share with Windows OS’s that are on the same network, such as files, folders, and printers. This was very helpful […]

The Department of Justice has slapped an electronic health records vendor, eClinicalWorks, with a $155 million fine in a false claims lawsuit. eClinicalWorks initially disputed the allegations made in the lawsuit, but eventually agreed to settle so they could avoid costly and drawn out litigation. Central to the lawsuit was the allegation that eClinicalWorks was […]

What does the medical industry fear more than anything else? Easy. Ransomware. But even though healthcare providers are extremely vulnerable to ransomware because of their large attack surface and sensitive data, they aren’t the only ones who should be afraid of it. One hotel in Austria found that out the hard way. In fact, the […]

If you’ve bought a PC, pretty much ever, you’ve probably heard of Kaspersky. Kaspersky is a Russia-based cybersecurity company and makers of a popular antivirus program. With all the allegations surrounding Russia these days, questions are being asked about them. Aside from being installed on plenty of home and business computers, Kaspersky Antivirus is also […]

We trust that healthcare companies take every precaution to make sure patient files are as secure as they can be. In fact, not doing so can lead to big fines and other trouble. It’s surprising, then, that a Fortune 500 healthcare company would leave their patient records almost completely unprotected. Security reporter Michael Krebs reported […]

In November of last year, Jon and Dorothy Little were working with their realtor to close on December 2 on a $200,000 home in Hendersonville.  Of course, on even a good day, the home-buying process is known to be not only tedious but complicated as well. So imagine adding an email phishing scam to that […]

A new twist on an old malware is making a big splash. The malware in question is called Qakbot. It’s a little like ransomware in that it locks files on an infected computer, but it differs in that it locks out Active Directories and steals credentials in order to spread to other nearby systems. Qakbot […]

The WannaCry ransomware attack spread worldwide very quickly in part because it used NSA hacking tools that exploited vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system. WannaCry implemented two of the NSA’s tools, but a new strain of malware threatens to be more dangerous because it uses all seven NSA hacking tools. The new malware is a worm […]

Symantec, a leading cybersecurity firm and creator of, among other products, the popular Norton antivirus software, has announced that it’s highly likely that the perpetrators of the recent WannaCry cyberattack is a hacking group from North Korea known as Lazarus. In case you haven’t kept up with any news in the last week or so, […]

The big news in the recent WannaCry ransomware attacks was how a number of healthcare facilities in the UK had to shut down after being infected.Less reported was the fact that WaanaCry was also discovered in medical devices in the US. The FDA had issued a warning that medical devices were vulnerable to attack. Forbes reported that […]

While the spread of the recent endemic Ransomware has slowed down for now, this incident serves as a reminder to ensure adequate precautions are in place. New forms of this class of malware are deployed often, and several variations of the Wannacrypt edition have already been identified. Official details from government departments involved in the […]

By now you’ve probably heard of the mysterious hacker group called the Shadow Brokers. While they’re not the new kids on the block, their recent claim to fame was releasing zero day exploits stolen from the NSA that led to the worldwide outbreak of the WannaCry ransomware. They’ve decided to monetize their stolen electronic wares in […]

Craig Petronella, NC Top Cybersecurity Expert And IT Authority has put out a major alert to the immediate threat of massive cyberattacks for all businesses. Recent attacks have spread to more than 200,000 businesses in 150 countries in the last two days. Craig Petronella has issued the following warning. “As you probably heard in the […]

By now you’ve probably heard about the massive, worldwide ransomware attack, WannaCry, that has shut down hospitals and giant telecommunication companies. The attacks died down over the weekend, but not before infecting hundreds of thousands of computer systems. The attack started as a phishing campaign, with zip files containing malware posing as documents such as invoices, job […]

We wrote on Friday that 16 hospitals were infected with WannaCry, a new strain of ransomware. In that article, we also mentioned that Spanish telecom Telefonica had been hit with it as well. We now have more details on that attack. The attack wasn’t limited to Spain, though. The company includes several large pan-European companies […]

Sixteen hospitals had to divert patients to other facilities today after a wave of ransomware encrypted vital documents. The 16 hospitals are spread throughout the United Kingdom. The National Health Service has advised patients not to seek medical help except for emergencies and acute ailments. While it’s not known for sure how or why the […]

According to a report by Herjavec Group, the trend for Black Hat Hackers to target not only hospitals but the healthcare industry in general began to skyrocket in 2016.  Unfortunately, that disturbing trend does not appear to be slowing in 2017, nor for the foreseeable future. The problem is that the industry is just too […]

Although no ransom was demanded, it has been determined that San Antonio-based ABCD Children’s Pediatrics’ patient records were compromised in two ways: the Dharma virus, which is in the same family as Crisis ransomware, and by suspicious user accounts on ABCD’s network. It’s believed that the sensitive information of 55,447 patients was stolen. This includes […]