Cybersecurity

Ransomware attacks hit another record in 2024, and attacks in 2025 are not slowing down. So what’s new and what can we learn about ransomware as we move forward?  

From theory to practice, regional security operations centers empower college and university students to apply cybersecurity learning in real-world scenarios, while providing protection to cities and others needing coverage.

The court, which first acknowledged the incident Sunday night, has been shuttered four days this week by the online incident. Its internal systems, software and website have been taken offline.

State officials are investigating the electronic theft of more than $10,000 in federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from at least 71 Meadville residents. Precisely how the incidents occurred is unclear.

The court’s online civil and criminal dockets repeated failed Monday and authorities had announced the previous evening it would be closed that day. The closure extended into Tuesday as officials probed its cause.

Labor unions successfully argued that the U.S. Department of Education and Office of Personnel Management violated the Privacy Act of 1974 by giving DOGE access to citizens’ personal information.

Law enforcement is still investigating last year's phishing attack on Grand Forks Public Schools, but they recovered more than half the $2.2 million stolen, and the loss has not impacted funding for day-to-day operations.

Lawmakers in Arkansas and Missouri are considering legislation that would bolster cyber reporting and data privacy standards for businesses; and, in Texas, tighten cybersecurity standards for water utilities.

A phishing scam targeting residents in the Maryland city about unpaid parking tickets is not connected or related to an ongoing “cyber incident” disrupting some services in the county.

Racine Unified School District in Wisconsin is offering free credit monitoring and identity protection services to employees after a Dec. 13 cybersecurity incident. Forensic investigators said students were not impacted.

Bad actors known collectively by that name are staging attacks on targets in more than 70 countries, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the FBI said. The latter advises regular system backups.

County buildings are shuttered Monday as officials prove an “ongoing cyber incident of external origin” that began disrupting services Saturday. County schools and the library have not been impacted.

Cybersecurity has been in recent national headlines, with experts claiming DOGE is giving unvetted access to sensitive data. But do these partisan attacks harm the entire cyber industry and government trust?

Cuts to CISA and the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force have secretaries of state and municipal clerks worried about the security of voter registration databases and other critical election systems.

Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools in Virginia are back online after a Feb. 9 cyber incident that precluded virtual learning during a snowstorm last week.

On top of worries about enrollment, data security and staffing, new policies and scrutiny on higher education from the federal government have made risk audits and strategic planning more urgent than ever.

The state’s new threat assessment report focuses on how cyber criminals are using the newest tools to hack into systems and mount ransomware attacks on governments. The threats could be especially acute this year.

With Phase 1A of the CORE.NV project complete in January, Nevada has set the foundation for its enterprise resource planning update, its CIO Timothy Galluzi said, and enabled construction of better service delivery processes.