Weekly Cybersecurity Recap January 13
Table of Contents
- By Steven
- Published: Jan 13, 2023
- Last Updated: Nov 23, 2023
As the new year kicks off, hackers seem to have made their resolutions to “make this year even bigger than years past.” We’ve already seen schools and hospitals thrown off their axes. We can only hope 2023 will bring better fortune for companies and people than 2022 did.
Xavier University
The New Orleans school was attacked by Vice Society, a group best known for its attack on the Los Angeles Unified School District. The attack was ransomware, though it is unclear whether or not the school paid the ransom or if Vice Society gave it no chance. Unfortunately, the hacking gang has put multiple schools under throughout the years. The hackers accessed payroll, personal finances, misconduct allegations, social security numbers, and disciplinary actions.
California Department of Finance
Another ransomware group is responsible for this attack; the LockBit ransomware gang claimed the California Department of Finance breach as its work. LockBit is known to be the most prolific ransomware group worldwide as of September 2022. The group has hundreds of claimed attacks around the globe, so it is highly efficient and has only bad intentions for the information it has accessed in this breach. “Upon identification of this threat, digital security and online threat-hunting experts were rapidly deployed to assess the extent of the intrusion and to evaluate, contain and mitigate future vulnerabilities,” read the statement on the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services website.
Experian
The Experian breach was less of an attack and more of an oversight. A cybersecurity researcher found that if he changed the end of the URL on the Experian website, he could access his credit report with little to no verification. He reached out to a cybersecurity news site whose owner found the same results as him. Some consolation may be available in the fact that most of the information on the site was inaccurate.
Knox College
This hack was carried out by Hive, another ransomware group. The gang crossed a line with this hack; instead of contacting the school’s faculty and administrators, the group sent emails to the students, too. These were written in broken English, which is unsurprising as the group is international. “To us, this is a normal business day. For you, its a sad day where everyone will see your personal and private info,” Hive said to the students. As far as we know, this is the first time a hacker has reached out to students or employees en masse after a breach like this. Hive accessed social security numbers, passport numbers, names, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and birthdays.
Community Psychiatry Management, LLC, dba Mindpath Health
This mental hospital found out about what appears to be a phishing scam during a routine email audit. The email was breached twice at the beginning of 2022, resulting in an unknown number of victims. It is especially dangerous for breach victims in a threatened mental state, as even small things can cause significant mental deterioration. The breach affected patients by most having their social security numbers, addresses, prescription information, full names, medical diagnoses, treatment information, birthdays, and health insurance details accessed by the hacker.
