Cybersecurity

An Oklahoma school district is advising students that their Google accounts and some handheld devices are safe, but they should not use district-issued desktops or laptops due to a ransomware attack last week.

A cyber attack last weekend caused Albany City Schools to take its network offline, and while district officials say no data was compromised, teachers are using printed materials while investigators finish their work.

More states consider rallying volunteer cyber teams that can provide services like incident response and vulnerability assessments throughout the state. These models differ from state to state, however.

New Hampshire will receive $129,429 as part of its share from two multistate settlements with Experian Information Solutions Inc. and T-Mobile USA Inc. regarding a 2015 data breach, authorities said Monday.

While working with independent cybersecurity experts to investigate, an Iowa school district that suffered a cyber attack in September has since restored its systems and refused to pay the attacker's ransom.

Falsehoods are likely to proliferate as voters await final results of Tuesday's election, but efforts to communicate heavily about the process — and to explain any Election Day hiccups — can help, experts say.

Internet services are down across Riverland Community College's three campuses in Minnesota, and the college says it's working with Minnesota State system office technology personnel, Microsoft and Dell to resolve it.

Warning of a ransomware attack on Friday, Norman Public Schools asked families to turn off any devices issued by the district and not connect them to any network until further notice while law enforcement investigates.

Small glitches remain throughout the county systems, but officials say they are nearly 90 percent recovered from the BlackCat ransomware attack that disrupted city operations in mid August.

Hackers often seek to penetrate a network and then escalate their privileges until they can access — and exfiltrate — sensitive data or widely deploy malware. That makes Active Directory security essential.

Auditors for the Port of South Louisiana say damages from the 2021 cyber attack totaled more than $420,000 in misappropriated funds. Only around $250,000 was recuperated through insurance.

Ralph Johnson returns to the Pacific Northwest after leading information security operations for NantMedia Holdings, which owns The Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune. Johnson also served as CISO for King County, Wash.

The second International Counter Ransomware Initiative Summit drew together 36 nations and the E.U. to commit to share more information, establish international standards to disrupt illicit payments and coordinate other efforts to combat the threat.

The 2023-2025 strategic plan calls for whole-of-nation information sharing, unification within CISA, and more. Plus, CISA and partners discuss its forthcoming incident reporting rules and why “shields up” needs to be the new normal.

A data-extortion group that stole information from Davenport School District in Iowa in September claims to have posted some of it, but a threat analyst says the group may be baiting the district or bluffing.

The incident, which was just recently revealed to the public, saw Chester Councilman William Morgan allegedly send an estimated $400,000 to an unknown scammer during a phishing incident in June.

The ed-tech company’s Harvard and MIT-created subsidiary edX will offer online programs from dozens of universities in tech fields such as data analytics, cybersecurity, UX/UI, fintech and web development.

Former CISOs and cyber experts Dan Lohrmann and Deb Snyder discuss current cyber threats, as well as how state and local government can respond to the challenges associated with increasingly sophisticated attacks.