Cybersecurity

The Government Accountability Office recently released a report detailing the past and future uses of facial recognition technology within 24 federal agencies. The report found that nearly half plan to increase use.

New state CIO Shawnzia Thomas is focusing on expanding broadband, pushing cybersecurity best practices and taking an employee’s-eye view to technology adoptions in her first few months on the job.

Challenge Preparatory Academy in Augusta will teach cyber literacy as a core subject, plus classes on cyber ethics, technical details and other aspects of cybersecurity. It will also host evening classes for adults.

Hundreds of thousands of public health records, including COVID-19 vaccination details, were exposed in a data breach that was linked to an app that is used at Denton County vaccine clinics, officials say.

Building upon a military process for locating terror threats on social media, researchers are working on artificial intelligence to automate the matching and identification of anonymous users.

Cybersecurity experts and state motor vehicle agencies are reporting that cyber criminals are using driver's licenses phishing scams as another opportunity to steal identities and personal information.

From cryptocurrency thefts to hacking bank accounts, SIM swapping is a growing threat online. Here are relevant definitions, real-world examples and tips to help stop cyber criminals.

Seven states have created cyber navigator programs, which assist local election officials with foreign cyber threats. While some local areas welcome the help, others are skeptical about the state getting involved.

A phishing email pretending to be the message of a legitimate contractor tricked the auditor's office in Rock Island County, Illinois, to wire $97K to a bank account. The scammers also landed an additional payment of $18K.

A two-year study concluded that deep-water drilling rigs are not prepared in general to protect themselves against cyber attacks. Rigs need more than firewalls and antivirus software to be secure, the study found.

A recently proposed piece of New York legislation would require certain critical infrastructure systems to meet international cybersecurity standards to better prevent them from being compromised.

A threat, discovered in the county’s computer system, led to the decision in an emergency commissioners’ meeting to take systems offline to prevent damage. The hope is to have all systems fully rebuilt or restored by Monday.

Criminals will keep using ransomware as long as its profitable, but outright banning all payments could be deeply painful for critical sectors and small businesses. The road ahead is full of policy hurdles.

The money appears to have been stolen via email fraud by an overseas entity that converted the funds to cryptocurrency, Peterborough officials said in a statement. The U.S. Secret Service is investigating.

The White House, tech firms, insurers and educational organizations announced near-future steps to improve national cybersecurity, including new NIST guidelines and tech support for governments looking to upgrade defenses.

Senior federal officials met with education, insurance, critical infrastructure and technology organizations to talk expanding the cybersecurity workforce, defending essential systems and designing more secure tech products.

An Excel document detailing student requests for religious exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine at California State University, Chico was posted anonymously on a message board. Roughly half had been approved.

Part of the College of Business, the new facility includes forensic workstations, imagers and other tools to give students hands-on experience and a deep understanding of related threats and technologies.