Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

September 2023

Accounting Firm Brady Martz and Associates Suffers Huge Data Breach

Brady Martz & Associates is an accounting firm in Crookston, Minnesota. The company offers audits, business valuation, forensic accounts, employee benefit plans, and more. The company has more than 270 employees and generates over $63 million in assets annually. The organization maintains extensive data files for a large number of individuals, and those customers are at risk because the firm recently suffered from a data breach.

Weekly Cybersecurity Recap September 29

Data breaches are a huge challenge that modern organizations must deal with today. This week, we learned of several education-related breaches, as well as a few financial breaches. The National Student Clearinghouse and Lakeland Community College in Ohio were both hit with serious data breaches. There were also breaches with BMO Bank, the Brady Martz & Associates Accounting firm, and the Delta Dental of California health insurance provider.

BMO Bank Loses Customer Data in Recent Data Breach Attack

BMO Bank is the 8th largest bank in the United States, employing over 12,000 individuals. The bank manages more than $3 Billion in annual reserves and works with a huge number of customers as it has over 1,000 physical locations across the country. BMO Bank is based in Chicago, Illinois, but has locations throughout the country. If you bank with BMO, your data may be at risk, because the organization was recently hacked and lost a significant amount of customer data.

Lakeland Community College in Ohio Suffered a Major Data Breach

Lakeland Community College is a public school located in Lake County, Ohio. The school serves approximately 8,700 students at one time and provides over 135 different associate degrees and technical certificates. The school has more than 900 employees and generates over $104 million in revenue annually. Over many years the school serves tens of thousands of students, which means that it's processing and storing a substantial amount of information.

Delta Dental of California is Another Victim in the String of MOVEit Data Breaches

Delta Dental of California is a major dental insurance provider throughout one of the largest states in the US. The company is well-known for offering PPO dental insurance policies and other varieties of dental insurance options. The company was founded in 1955 and serves millions of Americans throughout nearly all of the 50 states. All California residents using Delta Dental may have been impacted by a recent data breach that could cause real problems for them.

The National Student Clearinghouse Breach Exposed Millions of Students

The National Student Clearinghouse is a research facility that gathers data on students from approximately 22,000 high schools and more than 3,600 different colleges. Between all these schools throughout the United States, approximately 97% of the total student population is enrolled in the National Student Clearinghouse. That means the information for most students is on file with the organization.

Weekly Cybersecurity Recap September 22

This week, we noticed that data breach attackers targeted a substantial number of hospitals. north Carolina patients are being impacted the most currently. Along with health groups like Atrium and Novant Health, nonprofit Save the Children was hit by a breach, as was the TransUnion credit bureau and Caesars Entertainment. A huge number of people were impacted by this breach between these different major organizations.

Atrium and Novant Health Get Attacked and Patients Suffer in 2023

Both Atrium Health and Novant Health are health organizations that work with a large number of hospitals offering services. These v work with data from thousands of patients and enable standard hospital practices to occur. Between the two organizations, a huge number of different hospitals and private practices are involved. That's why it's upsetting to learn that both of these organizations were recently breached.

How to Prevent Third-Party Vendor Data Breaches

Third-party data breaches can happen at any time to any organization. This type of breach occurs when a vendor (or some other business partner) holding your company’s data suffers a breach, and your data is exposed. According to the Verizon 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report, 62 percent of all data breaches happen via third-party vendors.

Data Breach Costs Rise, But Cybersecurity Pros Still Take Risks

The latest data from IBM shows that the average cost of a data breach has gone up by 2% to a whopping $4.45 million. You would think that in the cybersecurity industry, people would be all about safety and security, right? I mean, it's literally in the name. But here's the kicker: more than half (55%) of cybersecurity professionals have admitted to being risky when it comes to their cybersecurity practices at work.

Many North Carolina Hospitals Suffer From Serious Chain of Data Breaches

North Carolina hospitals were under attack from a streak of data breaches back in May of this year. The breaches resulted in some lost medical and personal information for many facilities throughout North Carolina. If you attended a hospital in North Carolina, there's a good chance at least some of your information was exposed by the breaches.

Non-Profit Save the Children Gets Hit By Ransomware Data Attack

Save The Children is an organization that specializes in helping children live healthy lives. The non-profit works in multiple countries, helping to provide for children's needs, especially in areas affected by war or tragedy. This organization was recently the target of a ransomware hacker group and suffered huge data losses as a result of that targeting.

Breach and Attack Simulation Helps Pipeline Operators Comply with New TSA Requirements

In July of this year, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) released Security Directive Pipeline-2021-02D (SD-02D) Pipeline Cybersecurity Mitigation Actions, Contingency Planning, and Testing. The directive—aimed at owners and operators of liquid and natural gas pipelines or facilities designated as critical infrastructure—outlines requirements for enhancing cyber resilience through the implementation of a TSA-approved cybersecurity implementation plan (CIP).

Caesars Entertainment Gets Hacked, Exposing Countless Gamblers

Caesars Entertainment is one of the largest casino companies in the United States and is well-known for its loyalty program. The company serves countless customers in Las Vegas and elsewhere throughout the world. The massive loyalty program takes in data from all of Caesars customers, and that program may have just backfired on the company, potentially hurting many of its customers in the process.

Weekly Cybersecurity Recap September 15

This week, data breaches were particularly bad, with attacks impacting travel technology giant Sabre, production giant Johnson and Johnson, and medical company Amerita. The online service marketplace called Freecycle was also impacted and so was Traderie, a game trading platform. Millions of individuals lost their information between these various breaches. Get more details about each of the specific attacks below.

Travel Technology Company Sabre Suffers a Vast Data Breach

Sabre is a huge technology company that serves as a powerful travel reservation system for many of the major hotels and airlines in the United States. The company handles huge volumes of data during its daily duties and is responsible for maintaining accurate booking data for all these different travel companies. Sabre was recently the victim of a data breach, putting all that data at risk potentially.

Data Breaches of 2023 that Left Healthcare Industries in Critical Condition

The EU Healthcare system is under attack. Between January 2021 and March 2023, the health sector faced various cybersecurity incidents, endangering the confidential information of hospital and patient data. For the 13th year in a row, the healthcare industry reported the most expensive data breaches, averaging a cost of USD 10.93 million. This year, 40 million patients have already been impacted by data breaches, indicating that 2023 is on track to set a new record for attacks on the health sector.

Infusion Company Amerita Suffers a Data Breach Exposing Countless Patients

Amerita and Pharmerica are medical companies that offer services to nursing facilities, hospitals, individuals, and seniors. These companies specialize in infusion treatments but also provide additional medical services. The companies were recently the target of a data breach that resulted in serious data losses for some of their patients. This is a major issue worth exploring, and, another example of medical information being vulnerable to attack.

Popular Gaming Trading Platform Traderie Breached Losing User Data

Traderie is a special trading platform dedicated to enabling Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Roblox, Elden Ring, Diablo, and Rocket League players to buy and sell in-game items with one another. The third-party trading service manages data for millions of game users and was recently the victim of a data breach that compromised a huge number of customers. If you rely on Traderie to make gaming trades, you may have had your data exposed.

AP Stylebook Data Breach Compromises Customer Personal Information

The Associated Press (AP) has disclosed a data breach affecting the legacy AP Stylebook website that led to phishing attacks against impacted customers, BleepingComputer reports. “On July 20, 2023, Stylebooks.com notified us that AP Stylebook customers had received phishing emails directing them to a fake website that imitated AP Stylebook to provide updated credit card information,” the AP said. “APS immediately engaged a cyber forensics firm to investigate the incident.

Johnson and Johnson's Healthcare Service Gets Breached Exposing Many

Johnson and Johnson is a large-scale manufacturing company that provides pharmaceuticals and medical products to companies throughout the world. The organization also makes a variety of consumer products. The massive company has over 130,000 employees and generates over $94 Billion in annual revenue. The huge company suffered a recent data breach that exposed some of its employees via its healthcare services.

Millions of Users on Freecycle are Compromised in Data Breach

Freecycle is an online platform dedicated to helping its users exchange free goods with one another. Freecycle is designed to help reduce waste by helping people give away their unwanted items instead of throwing them away. The platform has more than 7 million users and helps divert huge amounts of waste from landfills each year.

What Is a Password Breach?

A password breach is when a cybercriminal has your password and is able to use it to get into your account. Password breaches can occur due to social engineering and insider threats, but most often, weak password habits are the culprit. Keep reading to learn more about how passwords get breached, what can happen if your passwords are breached and how to prevent password breaches from happening.

Weekly Cybersecurity Recap September 8

Each week, new data breaches plague the public. This week, significant healthcare and retail breaches led to substantial data losses for customers and patients throughout the United States. With companies like Forever 21, Callaway, and United Healthcare involved, there were serious data losses. Cognizant and Indiana Medicaid were also breached this week. Learn all the details below.

UnitedHealthcare Patients Exposed in An Unexpected Data Breach

UnitedHealthcare is a large insurance company that serves more than 8 million Americans throughout the United States. The company gathers health, personal, and financial information and utilizes all those different data points to provide reliable insurance services. It's upsetting to learn that UnitedHealthcare was recently attacked and significant data may have been lost.

Cognizant Customers and Select Medicaid and Medicare Patients Exposed in Recent Breach

Cognizant is a massive IT services company with over 300,000 employees and more than $15 Billion in annual revenue. The company helps major corporations with IT services. TMG Health is a healthcare services provider that works with Medicare Advantage, Medicaid Part D, and Managed Medicaid programs for many government agencies throughout the country. Between these two major companies, a huge amount of data is stored. All that data is now vulnerable because of a breach that started in May.

Over 700K Indiana Medicaid Recipients Exposed in Data Breach

The Indiana Medicaid program helps state residents who fall into a lower income bracket. These individuals use the program to obtain medical care. To qualify for the program, individuals must present their financial statements and other personal data to the government organization. Some or all of this data could be at risk if the organization is compromised. After learning the Medicaid program was compromised, we were concerned about all the individuals that could be impacted.

More than 1 Million Callaway Customers at Risk From Security Vulnerability

Topgolf Callaway is a powerful golf company that offers modern golfing entertainment, as well as selling golf equipment in most areas of the world. The organization maintains online and in-person stores in many different countries and sells to millions of customers annually. With so much customer data exchanging hands through this company and its many retailers, everyone involved is at risk because of a recent security vulnerability.

What is Network Security? How to Stay Safe Against Data Breaches

According to IBM’s 2022 Data Breach Report, at least 42 million records were exposed due to data breaches between March 2021 and February 2022. Network security is a set of processes that protects a business from security incidents such as unauthorized access, data breaches, and any other malicious activities. With the world’s increasing dependency on interconnected devices, ensuring that our devices and information are safe is vital.

2023 Cost of a Data Breach: Key Takeaways

2023 Cost of a Data Breach: Key Takeaways It’s that time of year - IBM has released its “Cost of a Data Breach Report.” This year’s report is jam-packed with some new research and findings that highlight how organizations are implementing security and risk mitigation techniques to help identify and contain data breaches.

Medical Food Company Mom's Meals Suffers Serious Data Breach Exposing More than 1M

Mom's Meals is a food service company that helps provide meals to people who are in need of help. This meal service organization works to deliver food to the homes of individuals who need help with food. These individuals could be at risk for identity theft and other serious problems in the future. Learn about the specifics of this breach below and understand the full risk for data loss because of the attack.

Weekly Cybersecurity Recap September 1

Data breaches are becoming more and more of a problem worldwide, and this week, it's especially obvious that they're causing trouble for serious companies. Major medical organizations, schools, and financial companies were all hit by breaches this week. Mom's Meals, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, and Prospect Medical Holdings are all medical companies impacted by breaches this week. TMX Finance and the University of Minnesota are the other targets we cover in the recap below.