Cybersecurity

The Dallas Central Appraisal District website has been down for more than two weeks after being hit by a ransomware attack, and there’s still no word on when the site might be available to the public again.

An apparent cybersecurity breach has caused Iowa PBS to cancel the remainder of its annual fall fundraising pledge drive, with a spokesman confirming the problems resulting from the issue this week.

After briefly stirring into life as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, companies and entire economies are again stepping on the brakes as they brace for yet another “current situation.”

What are the latest online security tips as we head into another holiday season? What’s the best cyber advice, and what shopping trends should you watch out for?

Election-related disinformation built on strategies tested in 2020, and its believers remain a strong community, those watching the space say. Though voters rejected many election denier candidates, there is still cause for concern.

Sacramento County, Calif., officials announced that the medical data of as many as 5,372 inmates was exposed on the Internet for several months. The breach was related to unsecured folders held by a vendor, officials said.

A Houston-area school district is unsure whether a recent computer breach exposed sensitive data, but officials have reason to believe that people who initiated the attack may try to contact area residents about it.

White House Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall said this week that the recent midterm elections did not see significant, disruptive attacks against election infrastructure.

College and university IT departments are busier than ever accommodating the shift to hybrid learning models, putting pressure on CISOs and their staff to strengthen cybersecurity without ballooning costs.

Iran-sponsored advanced persistent threat actors accessed a federal civilian executive branch agency via an unpatched Log4Shell vulnerability. CISA and the FBI warn organizations to check their systems for signs of compromise.

Joe Swanson — the vice president of CTRL, the new privacy and cybersecurity compliance consultancy at Tampa-based law firm Carlton Fields — weighs in on the changing nature of digital threats.

K-12 schools, with their wealth of data and limited resources, are tempting targets to ransomware criminals and hacktivists, says a new report. Nonprofits offer free support, but some say the federal government must do more.

A Houston-area school district has hired cybersecurity experts to conduct an independent investigation to determine whether sensitive information was exposed after a possible intruder disrupted operations.

A recent report on the nationwide initiative to bring Internet connectivity to schools and libraries found it has been a vital part of modernization, and now it needs to invest in making those connections secure.

In a forthcoming project, Secretary of Commerce Elizabeth Tanner hopes a centralized data lake and distributed ledger technology could securely share professional and business identity data across state agencies.  

An Oklahoma school district has restored most of its network operations following a ransomware attack last week. The district is still working with data forensics specialists and law enforcement to investigate.

A recent study by the American Educational Research Association estimated that 4.9 million Facebook posts on official school pages include identifiable images of students, risking the attention of nefarious actors.

A vote tabulation glitch in Arizona’s Maricopa County and an attempted takedown of voter-facing websites in Mississippi prompted a flurry of election misinformation and efforts from officials to set the record straight.