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User Privacy
Data Breach Hackers. Phishing Attacks Ransomware Attacks. User Privacy

Cyberattack Triggers a Service Outage at Hartnell College

In reaction to a potential cybersecurity attack, Hartnell College's governing board conducted an urgent meeting on Wednesday evening to address the ongoing network outage at the institution.

The college's security system detected unusual behavior at 6 a.m. on Sunday, prompting Hartnell Vice President of Technology Chelsy Pham to take precautions and shut down the college's servers at around 8 a.m. Pham reported that the network had high levels of activity, which is unusual for a Sunday morning.

The main school in Salinas as well as the satellite campuses in East Salinas, Soledad, Castroville, and King City were all affected by the outage. According to Pham, the satellite campuses' internet was disabled out of an abundance of caution.

On Monday, there was no postponement of classes and the school's services were still available. Even though classes were still in session on Wednesday, students who depend heavily on the internet while on campus find the outage to be a hassle.

According to Pham, the college is striving to gradually reactivate the network. Although some lab and classroom conditions have to be changed, lessons have not been disrupted because the school's online teaching platform, Canvas, is up and running.

The college's phone system is still down as of now, but emails and text messages are still being delivered, according to Pham. Pham stated that there is no set date when the network will be completely functioning once more, but the college is undertaking extra efforts to get the system back up. 

The FBI issued a warning to K–12 institutions in 2020 over the continuation of ransomware attacks and data thefts into the 2020–2021 academic year. Data from the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center show that K–12 schools were implicated in 57 percent of all ransomware attacks reported to the organization in August and September, up from 28 percent from January through July.

Although the public was not permitted to join Hartnell's emergency governing board meeting where the current problem was reviewed, Gutierrez said the college is preparing a statement to release in the coming days. 

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which compelled colleges and school districts to rely on technology to instruct students, such attacks have grown to be a major threat to American institutions.
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User Privacy
Data Breach Hackers. Social Security Number User Privacy

Data Breach at City of Tucson Affected 123,500 Users

The City of Tucson, Arizona, recently announced a data breach that compromised the personal data of more than 125,000 people.

Data breach

A data breach is a scenario in which information is taken from a system without the owner's knowledge or consent. A data breach could happen to a small business or a major corporation.

If related data are among the information stolen, victims and their customers can also sustain financial damages. Malware or hacking attacks are to be blamed for the majority of data breaches.

Violation of user data

Although the event was discovered around May 2022, the city's investigation was not finished until last month.

The city claims that the issue was triggered by compromised network account credentials that gave the hackers access to files containing certain people's personal information in a data breach notice posted on its website. Between May 17 and May 31, the malicious hackers who had access to the network may have stolen or downloaded documents that contained the personal information of 123,513 people. 

The attacker may have had access to the affected people's names and Social Security numbers among other sensitive personal information disclosed during the incident, the City informed those who might have been impacted on September 23. Furthermore, according to letters of notification issued to the affected parties, there is no proof that this personal data has been exploited up to this point.

The city claims that after quickly recognizing the breach, it was able to contain it and make repairs and that it is also taking extra steps to strengthen its cybersecurity. The City is also offering advice to those affected on better defending themselves against fraudulent activities including identity theft and fraud.

The breach notification letters stated, "As part of its ongoing obligations to the security of information under its care, the City is reviewing its current policies and procedures regarding cybersecurity and considering extra measures and safeguards to defend against this sort of event in the future.

In addition, the city said it will provide free credit monitoring services to anyone affected and advice on how to safeguard oneself against fraud and identity theft.



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Networks Breached
China Hackers. HPE IBM Networks Breached

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and IBM Networks Breached by China; Clients Targeted




In order to gain access to the clients' computer, hackers of the China's Ministry of State Security breached the networks of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and IBM.

Being a part of the Chinese campaign Cloudhopper, the attacks tainted technology service providers in order to steal secrets from their clients. While the International Business Machines Corp said it had no proof regarding the sensitive corporate data being co promised, Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) simply chose not to comment on the campaign.

Albeit multiple warnings were issued by numerous administration organizations in addition to many cybersecurity firms about the Cloudhopper danger since 2017, the identity of  the technology companies whose networks were imperilled has still not being revealed yet.

As indicated by a U.S. federal indictment of two Chinese nationals unsealed on the 20th of December, Cloudhopper was for the most part centered on targeting the MSPs in order to easily access the client networks and stealing corporate secrets from organizations around the world.

While both IBM and HPE refused to comment on the explicit claims made by the sources, however they did give a statement each,

"IBM has been aware of the reported attacks and already has taken extensive counter-measures worldwide as part of our continuous efforts to protect the company and our clients against constantly evolving threats. We take responsible stewardship of client data very seriously, and have no evidence that sensitive IBM or client data has been compromised by this threat."

HPE said,"The security of HPE customer data is our top priority. We are unable to comment on the specific details described in the indictment, but HPE's managed services provider business moved to DXC Technology in connection with HPE's divestiture of its Enterprise Services business in 2017." 

Reuters was neither able affirm the names of other breached technology firms nor recognize any affected users.

Cloudhopper, which has been focusing on technology services providers for quite a long while, is known to have been penetrated the systems of HPE and IBM on numerous occasions in breaches that have gone on for a considerable length of time.

While IBM examined an attack as of late as this mid-year, HPE was not far behind as it directed a huge breach investigation in mid-2017.

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