- Colonial Pipeline, headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia suffered possible the most publicized ransomware attack in history:
- Pipeline was shutdown, causing gas prices to soar and gas stations to run out of gas in AL, AR, DC, DE, FL, GA, KY, LA, MD, MS, NJ, NY, NC, PA, SC, TN, TX and VA
- Company admitted it paid the hackers $5 million to get password to de-encrypt the network
- The DarkSide hacking group in Russia was responsible
- Brownsville Community Health Center of Brownsville, TX notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after data breach.
- Town of Concord in Massachusetts notified 70,000 people across the U.S. that their info may have been exposed after 108 hard drives went missing.
- The Town of College Park in Georgia notified an unknown number of employees and citizens that their info was stolen after it was illegally accessed by a former employee.
- University of Florida Health Shands in Gainesville, FL notified 1,562 patients that their PHI was exposed after it was illegally accessed by a former employee.
- The City of Chicago and Jones Day Law firm, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, notified an unknown number of city employees that their info was exposed after cyber security incident.
- The Veterans Administration is notifying nearly 200,000 U.S. military veterans that their PHI may have been exposed due to issues at one of its vendors, named United Valor of Jacksonville, FL.
- The City of Tulsa in Oklahoma is notifying an unknown number of citizens that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.
- The University of California system, headquartered in Oakland, CA, notified an unknown number of students and employees that their info may have been exposed after cyber security incident.
- The Los Angeles County Fire Department announced that three of its employees may be terminated after they were caught illegally sharing photos from the helicopter crash involving Kobe Bryant.
- The Mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, has thousands of emails exposed after ransomware attack.
- Timberland Regional Library in Tumwater, Washington notified an unknown number of customers that their info was exposed after email phishing attack.
- American Family Mutual Insurance Company, headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, notified 283,734 customers that their info was exposed after cyber security incident.
- The Three Affiliated Tribes – Madan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nations of Maryland, notified an unknown number of citizens that their info was exposed after ransomware attack.
- ATC Transportation Corp., headquartered in Dallas, TX, notified an unknown number of customers that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.
- Logansport Community School District of Indiana notified an unknown number of students that their info was exposed after ransomware attack.
- Centennial School District of Oregon notified an unknown number of students that their info was exposed after ransomware attack.
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, New York notified an unknown number of students that their info was exposed after ransomware attack.
- SAC Health System of Sacramento, CA notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.
- Neighborhood Healthcare of San Diego, CA notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.
- San Diego Family Care of California notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.
- Vitality Senior Center of Arlington, VA notified an unknown number of patient residents that their PHI was illegally accessed by a former employee.
- Scripps Health, an IDN in San Diego, CA area, notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI may have been exposed after ransomware attack.
- The California Department of State Hospitals notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after data breach.
- Anson County of North Carolina notified an unknown number of citizens that their info was exposed after cyber attack.
- The US Airforce announced it raided a home in Olathe, Kansas where someone was allegedly operating a hacking system and attacking US Air Force servers.
- Verizon 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report published and revealed:
- 2020 saw an 11% increase in phishing attacks
- 6% increase in ransomware attacks
- 61% of data breaches involved credential theft
- 85% of data breaches involved a human element
- 80% of data breaches were discovered by a third party rather than the breachedentity.
- most common cause of data breaches in misdelivery of paper and electronic documents (36%)
- healthcare industry cyberattacks commonly involving the use of ransomware
- 61% of incidents were the work of external threat actors
- 39% were internal data breaches.
- Medical data was breached in 55% of data breaches
- personal data breached in 66% of incidents
Original Post