Top 10 Stories

A healthcare data breach at Med Associates, a Latham, NY-based health billing company, may have exposed PHI on more than 270,000. View Full Story ORIGINAL SOURCE: Health IT Security

Federal health officials have ordered the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to pay a $4.3 million fine for failing to secure health records stemming from data breaches. The Houston Chronicle reports the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday that MD Anderson’s failure to encrypt health records violated the 1996 patient privacy law known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The case involves three incidents in 2012 and 2013 when the center’s...

Weak passwords and phishing are two of the most popular attack vectors for cybercriminals looking to steal financial information – in the case of regular users – or sensitive data such as medical records – in situations where bad actors are seeking to profit from extortion or ransomware. OpenVPN, the group behind the popular virtual private network application of the same name, recently conducted a study to assess employee cyber-hygiene and how it impacts corporate security strategies. It...

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of small businesses in the US fail to act following a cyber security incident, according to the 2018 Hiscox small business cyber risk report. The report also reveals that 47% of more than 1,000 small businesses polled had suffered at least one cyber attack in the past year, and that 44% that reported a cyber attack in the past year experienced two, three or four attacks. According to the report, seven in 10 businesses...

Researchers from Netscout Arbor have discovered a downloader advertised on underground forums dubbed Kardon Loader, it allows customers to build a malware distribution network or a botshop. Advs for Kardon Loader were first discovered on April 21, 2018, the author who goes online with the moniker Yattaze asks $50 for the application program and offers it as a standalone build, charging users for each additional rebuild. Downloader malware and botshops are essential components for the creation of botnets that could...

New versions of the SamSam ransomware will not execute unless the person running the malware's payload enters a special password via the command-line. This is a new protection mechanism added by the SamSam crew in a recent SamSam version discovered by Malwarebytes researchers. Previous versions did not feature this mechanism, meaning anyone who found a SamSam binary could have infected his computer by double-clicking and running the file. View full story ORIGINAL SOURCE: Bleeping Computer

A technique for attacking computer networks, first disclosed more than a decade ago, has resurfaced as a way to manipulate Internet-of-Things gadgets, smart home equipment, and streaming entertainment gizmos. Researcher Brannon Dorsey this week posted an essay explaining how smart home hardware can be vulnerable to a trick known as DNS rebinding. He also crafted this website that, with your permission, will run JavaScript in your browser to detect whether or not you have any devices vulnerable to DNS...

A new malware campaign is roping systems into a botnet and providing the attackers with complete control over infected victims, plus the ability to deliver additional payloads, putting the victims' devices at risk of Trojans, keyloggers, DDoS attacks and other malicious schemes. The malware comes equipped with three different layers of evasion techniques which have been described by the researchers at Deep Instinct who uncovered the malware as complex, rare and "never seen in the wild before"....

Chinese police have arrested 16 employees of a local IT company on charges of hacking after deploying cryptocurrency miners on thousands of computers at Internet cafes in 30 cities. The group was arrested last week, according to Chinese news site Hangzhou. Police say the 16 were employees of an IT company who had computer servicing contracts with various Internet cafes across China. The sixteen stand accused of installing hidden cryptocurrency miners on the computers they serviced...

Aviation professionals enthusiasts have been told to change their passwords after flight-tracking site flightradar24/ warned of a data breach. The site offers real-time visualizations of commercial flights in transit with a freemium model. Subscribers get access to more historical data or to a package of services aimed at aviation professionals. However some subscribers have been sent emails that warn of a data breach. View full story ORIGINAL SOURCE: The Register