CYBER SECURITY NEWS – WEEK OF DECEMBER 18, 2023
Delta Dental of California data breach exposed info of 7 million people
- Delta Dental of California and its affiliates are warning almost seven million patients that they suffered a data breach after personal data was exposed in a MOVEit Transfer software breach.
- According to a Delta Dental of California data breach notification, the company suffered unauthorized access by threat actors through the MOVEit file transfer software application.
- Delta Dental of California learned about the compromise on June 1, 2023, and five days later, following an internal investigation, it confirmed that unauthorized actors had accessed and stolen data from its systems between May 27 and May 30, 2023.
- The data breach has so far impacted 6,928,932 customers of Delta Dental of California, who had their names, financial account numbers, and credit/debit card numbers, including security codes, exposed.
New York hospitals’ patient data impacted by cyberattack
- CBS News reports that New York-based health providers HealthAlliance Hospital, Margaretville Hospital, and Mountainside Residential Care Center, which are under the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, had their patients’ data compromised in an attack against their IT network that spanned nearly two months.
- HealthAlliance, which serves as the facilities’ parent, disclosed that its IT network was infiltrated between Aug. 18 and Oct. 13, enabling threat actors to exfiltrate patients’ names, birthdates, addresses, and Social Security numbers, as well as their health insurance details, medications, diagnoses, treatment information, and financial data.
- While all the health providers have been impacted by days-long disruptions that prompted the diversion of patients to other WMCHealth facilities, operations have been completely restored by Oct. 21.
Central Bank of Lesotho facing outages after cyberattack
- The bank released multiple statements confirming that a recent incident affected several systems. The landlocked mountainous country is encircled by South Africa and has a population of more than 2 million.
- “The Central Bank of Lesotho advises the public that, on Monday 11th December 2023, it experienced a cybersecurity incident on its systems. The Bank has investigated the matter and is working around the clock to restore the systems,” the bank said.
- The institution released another statement alongside the Bankers Association of Lesotho notifying that the ongoing downtime of the National Payments System “has made it impossible for all local banks to honor inter-bank transactions in the country.”
Ontario public library shuts down most services due to cyberattack
- A popular library in Ontario, Canada was forced to shut down most of its services this week due to a cyberattack — the latest library to face issues after hackers infiltrated its systems.
- While in-person borrowing and library programs remain available, its phones, email, WiFi, website, catalogs, printers, computers and digital resources are no longer accessible. Customers also are unable to place holds on items.
- “Experts have been engaged and investigations are underway. We expect that it could take some time to restore our systems,” they said.
Kraft Heinz reviewing claims of cyberattack but internal systems ‘operating normally’
- The Kraft Heinz Company said it is looking into recent claims of data theft made by a ransomware gang.
- A spokesperson for Kraft Heinz provided more information about what may have been attacked but said the company is not dealing with any adverse effects.
- “We are reviewing claims that a cyberattack occurred several months ago on a decommissioned marketing website hosted on an external platform, but are currently unable to verify those claims,” the spokesperson said.
District court in Switzerland ‘victim of a cyber attack’
- The nature of the incident has not been disclosed, although the limited description on the court’s website indicates it may have been a ransomware attack.
- “The entire IT system had to be shut down to protect the data. It is currently unclear when the IT will be available again, but it could take several days,” the website says.
- According to Swiss news publication Inside IT, the attackers encrypted administration data during that incident, and officials shut down and disconnected their computer networks as a precaution.