A data breach is a nightmare for any company, and it’s one that more businesses in more industries are having to face today. About 85% of IT professionals foresee a data breach at their business in the next 12 months.
Cybercriminals are hungry for data that they can sell in the booming dark web data markets for a hefty profit, spawning an unprecedented increase in data-focused cybercrime that’s rocking businesses of every size and it isn’t going to stop anytime soon!
Top 10 SME Data Breach Statistics from 2021
The number of recorded data breaches in 2021 has exceeded the total number of events 2020 by 17%, with 1,291 breaches in 2021 compared to 1,108 breaches in 2020
More than 60% of breaches result from misused, stolen or purchased credentials
An estimated 85% of data breaches involve a human element.
Phishing is the top threat action that results in a breach
The number of breaches that involve ransomware has doubled
34% of data breaches involve internal actors
Over 80% of breaches are discovered by external parties.
An estimated 36% of businesses worldwide had a cloud data breach in the past 12 months
74% of businesses in the United States have fallen victim to a successful phishing attack that resulted in a data breach in the last 12 months
The US is the leader in phishing-related data breaches for 2021 so far, with rates 30% higher than the global average, and 14% higher than the same period in 2020.
The Cost of a Data Breach
In this year’s IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report, researchers determined that the average cost of a breach in 2021 is estimated at £3.1 million per incident, the highest ever recorded in the 17 years of the study.
The cost of a data breach can change significantly depending upon the initial attack vectors including the top three most common: compromised credentials (20% of breaches), phishing (17%) and cloud misconfigurations (15%).
The cost of a breach can be impacted by the type of data stolen or leaked, like customer personally identifiable information (Pii) – the most frequently breached and the most expensive at £125 per record.
The top country in the world for data breach costs in 2021 (so far) is the US with an average cost of $9.05 million.
Thanks to the hot market for COVID-19 data in 2020, medical data is in second place as the most desirable data to snatch, and healthcare at £6.8 million is the industry with the most expensive data breach costs.
Businesses that operate with 50% remote workers took an average of 316 days to identify and contain a data breach compared to the overall average of 287 days.
Companies supporting a remote or hybrid workforce experienced an increase of up to £750,000 more when a data breach occurred, with the highest rates of £3.5 million in comparison to £2.8 million.
Cloud Data Breaches
“The State of Cloud Security 2021” Verizon report asked IT professionals about the circumstances that influence a company’s chance of a possible cloud data breach and these were the factors that they pointed to:
32% say too many APIs and interfaces to govern
31% cite lack of adequate controls and database oversight
27% point to lack of policy awareness around data security
23% blamed old-fashioned negligence
21% said they are not checking Infrastructure as Code (IaC) prior to deployment
20% admitted outright that human factors were at fault
Booming Dark Web Data Markets Drive Data Theft
Most Prevalent Types of Data Stolen in Breaches:
Credentials: 60%
Personally Identifying Data (PII): 40%
Medical Data: 10%
Bank Data: 10%
Internal Data: 10%
Payment Data: 10%
Is Your Business Protecting Its Valuable Data?
Cybersecurity requires a multi-layered approach to fully protect your business.
Protecting your business Data is a critical priority for any business, not only form a regulatory stance (I.E GDPR, PCI-DSS etc) but also in protecting your customers and employees.
MSnet was founded with a passion to assist businesses from the threat of Cybercrime.
Our Mission is to empower businesses with the knowledge, Training and Services required in safeguarding them from Cybercriminal activity.
If you would like more information please reach out our team on 01489 539700 or use the Contact US button below
The struggle to get users to make good, strong, unique passwords and actually keep them secret is real!
It can be hard to demonstrate to users just how dangerous their bad password decisions can be to the entire business, even though an estimated 60% of data breaches involved the improper use of credentials in 2020.
There’s no rhyme or reason to why employees create and handle passwords unsafely. Employees at every level are unfortunately drawn to making bad passwords and playing fast and loose with them – and that predilection doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.
Managing Too Many Passwords ?
The average adult has an estimated 100 passwords floating around that they’re using. That’s a bewildering tangle of passwords to manage. About 300 billion passwords are currently in use by humans and machines worldwide. The global pandemic helped put even more passwords into circulation as people on stay-at-home orders created an abundance of new online accounts. According to the conclusions of a global study conducted by Morning Consult for IBM, people worldwide created an average of 15 new online accounts per person during the main thrust of the pandemic.
Many of those logins were compromised from the start thanks to abundant dark web data. An estimated 15 billion unique logins are circulating on the dark web right now. In 2020 alone, businesses had to contend with a 429% increase in the number of business login details with plaintext passwords exposed on the dark web. That dramatic increase in risk per user comes back to haunt a business.
The average business is now likely to have about 17 sets of login details available on the dark web for cybercriminals to enjoy and that number is only going to continue to grow thanks to events like this year’s giant influx of fresh passwords from the RockYou 2021 leak!
Bad Passwords
Research by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) shows that employees will choose memorability over security when making a password. Their analysts found that 15% of people have used their pet’s name as their password at some point, 14% have used the name of a family member, 13% have used a significant date, such as a birthday or anniversary and another 6% have used information about their favourite sports team as their password.
That makes cybercriminals’ jobs easy even if they’re trying to directly crack a single password. After all, those users have probably told them everything that they’d need to know to do the job in their social media profiles.
Password Sharing Is Rampant
Worse yet, employees are sharing their passwords with other people at an alarming rate, even if the people they’re sharing a password with don’t work at the same company. Over 30% of respondents in a Microsoft study admitted that their business had experienced a cybersecurity incident as a result of compromised user credentials that had been shared with people externally.
43% of survey respondents have shared their password with someone in their home 22% of employees surveyed have shared their email password for a streaming site 17% of employees surveyed have shared their email password for a social media platform 17% of employees surveyed have shared their email password for an online shopping account
Top Password fails
Analysis of the top 250 passwords found on the dark web, found the top categories for the weakest passwords in 2020 were:
Weakest Password Categories in 2020
Family Names (I.E Maggie)
Sports Teams (I.E Arsenal)
Favourite Food (I.E Cookie)
Place Names (I.E. London)
Names of Pets (I.E. Rocky)
Famous People/Characters (I.E Tigger)
Top 20 Most Common Passwords found on The Dark Web in 2020
123456
password
12345678
12341234
1asdasdasdasd
Qwerty123
Password1
123456789
Qwerty1
:12345678secret
Abc123
111111
stratfor
lemonfish
sunshine
123123123
1234567890
Password123
123123
1234567
Stolen Passwords on the Dark Web
Credentials were the top type of information stolen in data breaches worldwide in 2020, (personal information took second place just over financial data in third), and Cybercriminals didn’t hesitate to grab batches of credentials from all over the world. Cybercriminals snatched them up in about 70% of EMEA breaches, 90% of APAC region breaches and 60% of North American breaches. Researchers disclosed that the average company experiences 5.3 credential compromises that originate from a common source like phishing every year, a number that should give every business owner chills.
An abundance of records on the dark web has spawned an abundance of passwords for cybercriminals to harvest, and that’s bad news. Giant password dumps on the dark web like the 100GB text file dubbed RockYou2021 have ratcheted up risk too. That giant dump of of data is estimated to contain 8.4 billion passwords. Cybercriminals make use of that bounty quickly and effectively.
In the aftermath of an enormous 2020 hack, ShinyHunters breached the security of ten companies in the Asian region and brought more than 73 million user records to market on the dark web. A group like ShinyHunters will of course try to profit by selling that stolen data at first, but when the data has aged or there are no interested buyers, cybercriminals will just offload it in the vast data dumps of the dark web making it available for anyone to sift through.
Protect your Business from Password Danger
Password shenanigans can put any business at risk of a devastating and expensive cyberattack, but protecting your business from password-related danger isn’t hard to do or expensive.
Protecting your business from password dangers requires a multi-layered approach, incorporating both training and technology.
Training will educate your employees into the dangers of Cybercrime and what they can do to recognise the threat and how to avoid the dangers.
Technology and policy ensures a correct framework is in place to remove the complications around employee passwords, ensuring a robust and centralised credential management system is in place to protect your business.
MSnet was founded with a passion to assist businesses from the threat of Cybercrime.
Our Mission is to empower businesses with the knowledge, Training and Services required in safeguarding them from Cybercriminal activity.
If you would like more information please reach out our team on 01489 539700 or use the Contact US button below
Hackers manage a shocking breach that leads to ATO at the FBI, beer production goes flat after a cyberattack at S.A. Damm, Robinhood takes a beating and welcome good news about business security spending increases.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Exploit: Account Takeover
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Federal Government Agency
Risk to Business: 1.417= Severe
A shocking email security breach at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) led to the takeover of a user account. The cybercriminals that accomplished the feat were able to use that compromised email account to send tens of thousands of fraudulent emails warning recipients of impending cyberattacks. Messages reached celebrities like Jay Z and journalists including investigative reporter Brian Krebs. The Bureau later confirmed that its Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP) was compromised in a cyberattack Friday. FBI officials were quick to stress the fact that the malicious emails originated from an FBI-operated server that was solely dedicated to pushing notifications for LEEP and not part of the FBI’s corporate email service.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data loss was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: This incident shows that no organization is immune to a cyberattack, and even the best defenses can fail.
West Virginia Parkways Authority
Exploit: Ransomware
West Virginia Parkways Authority: State Government Agency
Risk to Business: 1.822=Severe
A suspected ransomware attack snarled operations at the West Virginia Parkways Authority last Friday. Officials announced that a cyberattack had hit the agency’s internal computer systems, knocking out email, telephones, and various non-critical applications for several hours. According to the statement, no data was extracted or exposed in the incident which only impacted operational technology. Systems have since been restored and the incident is under investigation.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data loss was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Using ransomware against infrastructure targets to shut down their operations has become much more common.
Robinhood
Exploit: Phishing (Vishing)
Robinhood: Financial Services Platform
Risk to Business: 1.542=Extreme
Financial services platform Robinhood is in the news again after disclosing a data breach on 11/03. The company blamed the security incident on vishing. Threat actors obtained access to the organization’s customer support systems by obtaining systems access over the phone. This is the same technique that proved successful in the 2020 Twitter hack. According to reports, after accessing the data, the cybercriminals then demanded an extortion payment to keep the data safe. No word on the amount of this demand. The incident is under investigation.
Individual Risk: 1.312=Extreme
The company disclosed that it estimates a total of seven million users are apparently affected by this breach. Threat actors accessed email addresses for five million customers and a separate list of full names for two million customers. Robinhood says that the bad guys gained access to varying levels of user information including in-depth PII including full names, date of birth and zip code for around 310 users, and extensive records for a subset of 10 users.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Vishing threats are popping up more frequently as cybercriminals look to vary their approach to obtaining credentials in unexpected ways.
Hewlett Packer Enterprise (HPE)
Exploit: Credential Compromise
Hewlett Packer Enterprise: Business Technology Services
Risk to Business: 1.615= Severe
Hewlett Packer Enterprise (HPE) just informed customers that use its Aruba networking unit that their information may have been exposed in a cyberattack on its Aruba Central cloud environment in late October. The company outlined the incident in a statement to the press “On 2 November, HPE discovered that an access key to data related to the network analytics and contact-tracing features of Aruba Central, our cloud-based network management and monitoring solution, was compromised and used by an external actor to access the environment over a period of 18 days between 9 and 27 October 2021.” HPE went on to specify that the data in question included “identifying device media access control (MAC) addresses, IP addresses, device operating systems type and hostnames, and user names for Wi-FI networks where authentication is used, as well as dates, times, and physical Wi-Fi access points (APs) to which devices connected.” The incident is under investigation
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Cybercriminals will do anything to obtain a legitimate user credential because it gives them the keys to the kingdom, enabling them to do massive damage quickly.
United Kingdom – Simplify Group
Exploit: Hacking
Simplify Group: Conveyancing & Property Services
Risk to Business: 1.512= Severe
UK property services giant Simplify Group has been experiencing a cyberattack that impacted operations at many of its divisions. The company operates brands like Premier Property Lawyers, My Home Move and DC Law. The outage was a spanner in the works for new and prospective homebuyers, including some that were mid-move, and they were quick to take to social media. Some systems have been restored and the incident is under investigation.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Operational disruption from a ransomware attack is just as likely as data theft and sometimes even more damaging.
Spain – S.A. Damm
Exploit: Ransomware
S.A. Damm: Brewing
Risk to Business: 1.595 = Extreme
Operations went flat at Spanish brewer S.A. Damm after a ransomware attack crippled production. The company disclosed that the cyberattack hit the brewery on Tuesday night and for a few hours the plant in El Prat de Llobregat, which produces 7 million hectolitres of beer a year, was “entirely paralyzed”. Operations were partially restored quickly and the rest of the recovery is expected to be completed soon.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Ransomware gangs have been stopping production in factories rather than stealing data in the hopes of scoring a quick ransom from desperate businesses.
1 – 1.5 = Extreme Risk
1.51 – 2.49 = Severe Risk
2.5 – 3 = Moderate Risk
Risk scores for The Week in Breach are calculated using a formula that considers a wide range of factors related to the assessed breach.
Canada’s biggest cyberattack ever disrupts Newfoundland and Labrador healthcare, ransomware is the real villain at Diamond Comic Distributors, phishing wreaks havoc at a defence contractor.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a ransomware attack at Diamond Comic Distributors. The Baltimore-based company, the exclusive distributor of Image Comics and a publishing outlet for dozens of small-press comics publishers, suffered a ransomware attack last Friday that took down the company’s website and customer service platforms all weekend into Monday. Diamond said in a statement that it did not anticipate that any customer financial data had been impacted by this event. Investigation and recovery is underway with some functions already restored.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data loss was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Ransomware can cost companies a fortune from operational disruption alone even if no data is snatched, not to mention incident response costs.
A phishing attack that snared an employee is the suspected cause of a breach at defense contractor Electronic Warfare Associates (EWA). The company is a major provider of specialized software for the US defense establishment including the Pentagon, the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). EWA’s investigation determined that an attacker broke into an EWA email account in August 2021 after a phishing operation. The intrusion was uncovered when the attacker attempted a wire transfer. Employee PII was exposed and concern remains that sensitive defense information may also have been exposed.
Individual Risk: 1.703=Severe
EWA has admitted that the attackers snatched files with certain personal information including name and Social Security Number and/or drivers’ license number for an undisclosed number of EWA employees, but no further information was given.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Phishing is an equal opportunity offender and no less likely to be successful against the presumably cybersecurity savvy employees of a tech company as any other business.
Newfoundland and Labrador Health
Exploit: Ransomware
Newfoundland and Labrador Health: Healthcare System
Risk to Business: 1.442=Extreme
What may be the largest cyberattack in Canadian history crippled the healthcare system of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador on October 30th. The suspected ransomware attack hit scheduling and payment systems, causing widespread interruptions in patient care including the cancellation of all non-urgent imaging and medical appointments well as a reduction in chemotherapy sessions and significant complications the province’s COVID-19 response. Eastern Health reported that their payment systems to suppliers and vendors were also targeted by the attack. Email and telephone capability has been restored in some locations and an investigation is ongoing.
Individual Impact: No information about the exposure of patient information was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Healthcare has been beleaguered by cyberattacks, especially ransomware, since the start of the global pandemic.
Greece – Danaos Management Consultants
Exploit: Hacking
Danaos Management Consultants: Maritime IT
Risk to Business: 1.615= Severe
Maritime clients who use the communication systems of Danaos Management Consultants found themselves without some communications capability after a cyberattack blocked their communication with ships, suppliers, agents, charterers and suppliers. Several Greek shipping companies were impacted. The incident also resulted in the loss of an unspecified amount of files and correspondence for the impacted shipping firms.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Cyberattacks have rocked the maritime world in 2021, with major attacks against the world’s four biggest shippers complicating the world’s supply chain woes.
Germany – Media Markt
Exploit: Ransomware
Media Markt: Electronics Retailer
Risk to Business: 1.512= Severe
Electronics retailer MediaMarkt has suffered a ransomware attack that caused the company to shut down some IT systems, impacting store operations in Netherlands and Germany. While cash registers and payment card systems in brick-and-mortar locations were disrupted, online sales were not impacted. The attack was purportedly carried out by the Hive ransomware outfit who initially demanded $240 million in ransom.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Operational disruption from a ransomware attack is just as likely as data theft and sometimes even more damaging.
Australia – mySA Gov
Exploit: Hacking
mySA Gov: Government Services Platform
Risk to Business: 1.595 = Extreme
South Australia’s Department for Infrastructure and Transport confirmed that mySA Gov accounts were compromised through a cyber attack. Officials went on to say that the hackers gained access to several mySA Gov accounts that were secured with recycled passwords. The department went on to say that there was no evidence of any unauthorized transactions on the impacted accounts while encouraging users to update their passwords.
Individual Risk: 1.595 = Extreme
A report from ABC says that 2,601 mySA Gov accounts were accessed in the attack, with 2,008 of them containing registration and licensing information. It is unclear if any information was exfiltrated.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Cybercriminals are always hungry for PII, especially identification card or passport data that can help them commit identity theft.
1 – 1.5 = Extreme Risk
1.51 – 2.49 = Severe Risk
2.5 – 3 = Moderate Risk
Risk scores for The Week in Breach are calculated using a formula that considers a wide range of factors related to the assessed breach.
Ransomware sours operations at dairy powerhouse Schreiber Foods, jeweller to the stars Graff is in the wrong kind of spotlight, an old gang with a new name hits the NRA, trouble at the Toronto Transit Commission.
The National Rifle Association (NRA)
Exploit: Ransomware
National Rifle Association: Gun Rights Activist Group
Risk to Business: 1.417= Severe
Guess who’s back? Cybersecurity researchers believe that the notorious Evil Corp has rebranded itself as Grief, the group that has claimed responsibility for a probable ransomware attack at The National Rifle Association (NRA). Grief posted 13 files to its news website last Wednesday after they claimed to have hacked the NRA. The gang is threatening to release more of the files if they’re not paid, but no ransom demand was specified. NBC News reported that the files it saw were related to grants. The samples provided by the gang include blank grant proposal forms, a list of recent grant recipients, an email to a recent grant winner earlier this month, a W-9 form and the minutes from a September 24th NRA teleconference meeting.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data loss was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Ransomware can be used to steal and publicize sensitive information that a company doesn’t want exposed.
PracticeMax
Exploit: Ransomware
PracticeMax: Medical Practice Management Services
Risk to Business: 1.822=Severe
A ransomware attack on medical practice management services firm PracticeMax may have exposed Protected Health Information. The company notified members of Village Health that they may have been impacted by a cyberattack in April and May of 2021. VillageHealth is a care coordination program for patients with chronic conditions run by DaVita Inc. and offered through health plans including Anthem and Humana. PracticeMax indicates the breach affected more than 4,400 of its members in legal filings, but a company statement warns that they cannot say for sure that any data was actually accessed or stolen.
Individual Risk: 1.703=Severe
In breach notification letters being sent on behalf of DaVita, Humana and Anthem, PracticeMax says the incident affected PHI including members’ first and last name, date of birth, address, phone number, Social Security Number, member ID number and clinical data pertaining to services received through the VillageHealth program.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Service providers that handle a lot of valuable data have been favored targets of ransomware groups looking to profit in the booming data markets.
United States – Schreiber Foods
Exploit: Ransomware
Schreiber Foods: Dairy Processor
Risk to Business: 1.442=Extreme
Wisconsin-based dairy powerhouse Schreiber Foods said its plants and distribution centers are back up and running after a ransomware attack ground operations to a halt over the weekend. The company announced that a “cyber event” had disrupted operations at its processing and distribution centers after critical systems were knocked or taken offline. Schreiber uses a variety of digital systems and computers to manage milk processing, so this event impacted the entire dairy supply chain in the US. This is the latest incident in a string of massive production-impacting cyberattacks against agricultural sector targets. The company is the largest milk processor in Wisconsin, and it has reportedly been hit with a $2.5 million ransom demand.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business In September, the FBI released a notice warning companies in the food and agriculture sectors to watch out for ransomware attacks aiming to disrupt supply chains.
Canada – Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)
Exploit: Hacking
Toronto Transit Commission (TTC): Government Entity
Risk to Business: 1.615= Severe
The Toronto Transit Commission was the victim of a ransomware attack that it says began last Thursday night and expanded on Friday. Officials were quick to assure the public that the attack has not caused any significant disruption to transit service and the public and employees are not at risk. They specified that transit vehicles are continuing to service their routes, but apps and computer displays of route information are being affected. There’s no word on when those functions will be restored.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Cyberattacks on infrastructure targets are common, and that means that organizations that run and serve them need to step up their security game.
United Kingdom – Graff
Exploit: Ransomware
Graff: Jeweler
Risk to Business: 1.512= Severe
The Conti ransomware gang made headlines again with a successful ransomware attack against high-society jeweler Graff. The company counts clients like Donald Trump, David Beckham, Oprah Winfrey and other major-league clientele. Graff operates at the top end of the diamond jewelry market, with more than 60 retail stores worldwide. Reports say that the Conti group has already posted 69,000 confidential documents on its dark web leak site including client lists, contact data and other proprietary information. Ransom demands are reported to be in the millions of pounds.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Firms like Graff not only have records on deep-pocketed clients, they also have records on transactions that those clients may want to have kept quiet.
For the third time this year, cybercriminals have hit lending platform C.R.E.A.M. Finance, stealing cryptocurrency. This time, thieves made off with $130 million worth of cryptocurrency assets. According to the experts, the attackers have likely exploited a vulnerability in the platform’s flash loan feature, then transferred the stolen funds to a wallet under their control before splitting them through other wallets. This is the third successful heist from the platform this year. Crooks jacked $29 million in August 2021 and $37 million in February 2021.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Cybercriminals are always hungry for cash and crypto is the currency that they prefer, so stealing it will continue to be a popular option.
Thailand – Centara Hotels & Resorts
Exploit: Ransomware
Centara Hotels & Resorts: Hotel Chain
Risk to Business: 1.637 = Severe
The Desorden ransomware group claims to have stolen over 400GB of files and databases containing information belonging to millions of hotel guests of Thailand’s Centara Hotels & Resorts. The hotel chain is part of Central Group, a conglomerate that also includes the Central Restaurants Group, which it hacked earlier this month. The hackers made it clear that this attack was in retaliation for the Central Group’s refusal to pay the ransom for the first attack after negotiating and promising payment. That incident would have provided a ransom payment of $900,000 before Central Group backed out of the deal on Tuesday, spurring the second attack.
Individual Risk: 1.818 = Severe
The company admitted that attackers had in fact breached their system and accessed the data of some customers. The data accessed includes names, booking information, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses and photos of IDs. Whether or not passport data was included was not specified but it is commonly requested. The theft is said to have affected guests who stayed at the hotel chain between 2003 and 2021, including any guests that made advanced bookings up to December 2021.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Big pools of information are catnip to ransomware gangs, especially highly desirable PII or credit card data.
1 – 1.5 = Extreme Risk
1.51 – 2.49 = Severe Risk
2.5 – 3 = Moderate Risk
Risk scores for The Week in Breach are calculated using a formula that considers a wide range of factors related to the assessed breach.
Ransomware becomes a TV star at Sinclair Broadcast Group, cybercriminals bring tricks and no treats to candymaker Ferrara Candy Company.
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Exploit: Ransomware
Sinclair Broadcast Group: Television Station Operator
Risk to Business: 1.227 = Extreme
Sinclair Broadcast Group, the operator of 184 tv stations in 86 US markets, experienced a cyberattack last week that knocked broadcasts offline. The disruption was extensive, knocking local news broadcasts and syndicated programs offline. In some markets, NFL Sunday broadcasts were also disrupted. An unspecified amount of data was also stolen from the company’s network.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data loss was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Locking down networks and production lines to cause operational disruption is the name of the game for many ransomware groups in order to force a speedy ransom payment.
Ferrara Candy Company
Exploit: Ransomware
Ferrara Candy Company: Candy Manufacturer
Risk to Business: 1.822=Severe
Boo! Greedy cybercriminals unleashed their tricks on Ferrara Candy Company just one week away from Halloween. The company, maker of Brach’s Candy Corn, Nerds and Trolli gummies among other treats, has been in the confectionary business since 1901. Ferrara said that the attack briefly disrupted production operations. However, they were quick to assure anxious consumers that they didn’t need to worry about missing their Halloween favorites – Halloween orders were shipped to stores in August.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data loss was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Manufacturers have been increasingly falling into cybercriminals’ sights, especially at peak times in their respective industries.
United States – CoinMarketCap
Exploit: Hacking
CoinMarketCap: Cryptoasset Tracker
Risk to Business: 1.702=Severe
Crypto evaluator CoinMarketCap has had a data leak. First reported by Have I Been Pwned, cybercrime researchers have discovered 3.1 million user email addresses from the site available on the dark web. The company initially denied the hack but ultimately owned up to the security blunder.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time. So far it’s only an email address list, no other information.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Attacks on the banking, crypto and fintech sectors have been growing, creating complications for every financial services organization.
United Kingdom – Tesco
Exploit: Hacking
Tesco: Supermarket Chain
Risk to Business: 2.115=Extreme
Ubiquitous UK supermarket chain Tesco left customers scrambling after a cyberattack disrupted its web services over the weekend. The company said that unnamed cyberattacks began impacting its systems on Friday night. Beginning Saturday and rolling into Sunday intermittently, shoppers were unable to place orders or track deliveries. The incident also impacted the Tesco app.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Cyberattacks can come from myriad sources but they all cause companies to lose revenue and suffer a negative impact on customer relationships.
Switzerland – MCH Group
Exploit: Ransomware
MCH Group: Event Management
Risk to Business: 2.763 = Moderate
Swiss events management company MCH Group was hit with a suspected ransomware attack late last week that resulted in operational disruption. the company said that it’s back online, upcoming events will not be impacted and it’s in the process of investigating the attack. MCH Group handles events including the Art Basel shows in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong, as well as the watch and jewelry show Baselworld.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Service providers have been popular targets for cyberattacks because they often maintain databases that will score a big payday for cybercriminals on the dark web.
Spain – Atento
Exploit: Hacking
Atento: Customer Service Center Operator
Risk to Business: 1.615 = Severe
Customer support giant Atento was hit by a cyberattack on its Brazil-based systems that primarily impacted its operations in South America. The company disclosed a business interruption in Brazil as it sought to contain and mitigate the attack. Operations have been fully restored. Brazil is one of Atento’s main global markets, and more than 45% of the company’s global workforce is in that location.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Brazil has been experiencing an uptick in cyberattacks in recent months including insurers, retailers and other businesses that store a large volume of data.
Thailand – Centara Hotels & Resorts
Exploit: Hacking
Centara Hotels & Resorts: Hotel Chain
Risk to Business: 1.631 = Severe
Motherboard manufacturer Gigabyte was clobbered with a ransomware attack last week The ransomware group Avos Locker clobbered the company in a SolarWinds-style supply chain attack. The gang posted samples of the purportedly stolen data on its leak site including confidential details regarding deals with third-party companies and identifiable information about employees. Researchers from ThreatPost were able to view an assortment of data in a 14.9 MB file entitled “proof.zip” containing confidential data on agreements with Gigabyte relationships including Amazon, BestBuy, Black Magic, Blizzard, Intel and Kingston.
Risk to Business: 1.6808 = Severe
Researchers also noted that some employee and applicant information is included in that file. Researchers spotted employee payroll details, passport scans CVs of applicants, human resources files, consulting agreements, credit card data from 2014 and images from company events.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Computer hardware manufacturers have been very attractive to hacers as teh chip shortage grinds on, putting pressure on the industry, something cybercriminals love to exploit.
1 – 1.5 = Extreme Risk
1.51 – 2.49 = Severe Risk
2.5 – 3 = Moderate Risk
Risk scores for The Week in Breach are calculated using a formula that considers a wide range of factors related to the assessed breach.
Ransomware rocks Ecuador’s largest bank, a malicious insider strikes at a US healthcare organization, everyone in Argentina had their identity stolen
Olympus Corporation of the Americas
Exploit: Ransomware
Olympus Corporation of the Americas: Medical Technology Manufacturer
Risk to Business: 2.122 = Severe
Olympus was forced to take down IT systems in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America following a cyberattack that hit its network Sunday. The medical equipment manufacturer says that it does not believe that any data was stolen. Olympus also said that the incident was contained to the Americas with no known impact to other regions. Just last month, Olympus suffered another ransomware attack on its EMEA region systems.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data loss was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Many ransomware gangs aren’t bothering to steal data anymore, opting to lock down networks and production lines to force a speedy ransom payment.
Premier Patient Healthcare
Exploit: Malicious Insider
Premier Patient Healthcare: Medical Clinic Chain
Risk to Business: 1.712=Severe
Texas-based accountable care organization Premier Patient Healthcare filed a statement this week detailing a malicious insider incident that caused the exposure of PII for over 37,000 patients from around the country. According to the report, a terminated executive had retained credentials that enabled them to access and obtain an unspecified amount of PHI. No further details were included and a HIPAA filing has not yet appeared. When the breach first came to light, the company’s early statements pointed to a fault at a vendor, which turned out to not be the case.
Individual Risk: 1.712=Severe
The patient records that were accessed included name, age, sex, race, county and state of residence, and zip code, as well as Medicare beneficiary information, such as Medicare eligibility period, spend information, and hierarchical condition category risk score for an unspecified number of patients.
Customers Impacted: 8.5 million
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business This incident isn’t just a double helping of embarrassment for Premier Patient Healthcare, it’s also going to be a financial nightmare after regulators get finished with them.
Ecuador- Banco Pichincha
Exploit: Ransomware
Banco Pichincha: Banking & Financial Services
Risk to Business: 1.412=Extreme
Ecuador’s largest private bank Banco Pichincha has suffered a suspected ransomware attack that has resulted in some systems being knocked offline for days. Many services of the bank were disrupted, including online banking, its mobile app and ATM network. The bank is working with national authorities at the Superintendency of Banks to investigate the incident. In an internal notification sent to the Bank’s agencies and seen by BleepingComputer, employees are notified that bank applications, email, digital channels, and self-services will not be operational for an unspecified amount of time due to a technology issue, limiting many bank services to in-person transactions. Some ATM services have been restored. The incident is ongoing.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Attacks on the banking and fintech sectors have been growing, creating complications for every financial services organization.
Argentina – Registro Nacional de las Personas (RENAPER)/National Registry of Persons
Exploit: Hacking
Registro Nacional de las Personas (RENAPER): National Identity Database
Risk to Business: 1.232=Extreme
Hackers have broken into the Argentina Interior Ministry’s IT network and stolen a massive amount of data from Registro Nacional de las Personas (RENAPER)/National Registry of Persons. That extremely sensitive database contains ID card details for the country’s entire population. The leak was announced when a Twitter user posted ID card photos and personal details for 44 Argentinian celebrities including the country’s president Alberto Fernández and soccer superstars Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero. While the Argentine government admits to the hack, they maintain that no data was stolen. However, cybersecurity experts and journalists were able to contact the threat actors through a dark web posting and confirm the authenticity of the database. The hackers appear to have gained access through a compromised VPN.
Risk to Business: 1.222= Extreme
According to a sample provided by the hacker online, the information they have access to right now includes full names, home addresses, birth dates, gender info, ID card issuance and expiration dates, labor identification codes, Trámite numbers, citizen numbers, and government photo IDs.
Customers Impacted: The population of Argentina is 45 million
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business A strong security culture helps reduce the likelihood of an incident caused by employee carelessness as this one reportedly was.
Brazil – Hariexpress
Exploit: Misconfiguration
Hariexpress: e-Commerce Firm
Risk to Business: 1.616 = Severe
Brazilian e-commerce firm Hariexpress is in hot water after it exposed an estimated to 1.8 billion client and seller records. The problem appears to have originated with a misconfigured Elasticsearch server, according to researchers. The server was left unencrypted with no password protection in place, exposing 610GB of data and that data may have been exposed for several months.
Individual Risk: 1.616 = Severe
Exposed customer data included full names, home and delivery addresses, phone numbers and billing details. Also exposed were sellers’ full names, email and business/home addresses, phone numbers and business/tax IDs (CNPJ/CPF).
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Human error will always be a company’s biggest cyberattack risk. It pays to make sure that everyone feels like they’re responsible for security to avoid messes like this.
Spain – Meliá Hotels International
Exploit: Ransomware
Meliá Hotels International: Hotel Chain
Risk to Business: 1.615 = Severe
Meliá Hotels International, one of the largest hotel chains in the world, had fallen victim to a suspected ransomware attack. Attackers took down parts of the hotel chain’s internal network and some web-based servers, including its reservation system and public websites. An investigation is underway. No ransomware gang has yet claimed responsibility.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this incident as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Ransomware is always expensive. Even without the extortion demand, it can cause massive losses simply from business interruption.
Taiwan – Acer
Exploit: Hacking
Acer: Computer Manufacturer
Risk to Business: 1.631 = Severe
Acer has just been beleaguered by cyberattacks in 2021. In its second time at the dance this year, Acer’s India after-sales service has suffered a data breach. A threat actor has already claimed the attack on a popular hacker forum, saying that they stole more than 60GB of files and databases from Acer’s servers. The stolen data includes client, corporate, and financial data and login details belonging to Acer retailers and distributors from India. The threat actor posted a video showcasing the stolen files and databases to a dark web forum showcasing the records of 10,000 customers, and stolen credentials for 3,000 Indian Acer distributors and retailers.
Individual Impact: No information about the nature of the exposed customer data was available at press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Companies that store large amounts of data are hacker catnip. The data that they can steal will not only reap a big profit, it also opens other cybercrime doors.
1 – 1.5 = Extreme Risk
1.51 – 2.49 = Severe Risk
2.5 – 3 = Moderate Risk
Risk scores for The Week in Breach are calculated using a formula that considers a wide range of factors related to the assessed breach.
Ransomware may make headlines, but this week’s report shows that cybercriminals aren’t limiting themselves to just one threat.
Twitch
Exploit: Hacking
Twitch: Streaming Platform
Risk to Business: 1.402 = Extreme
Leading streaming and gaming platform Twitch has been hacked. Source code for the company’s upcoming expansion to its streaming service, an unreleased Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios, has appeared on message boards as well as data that details the terms and amounts of content creator payouts. An anonymous poster on the 4chan messaging board delivered the data in a 125GB torrent. That poster also claimed that the stream includes the entirety of Twitch and its commit history including the aforementioned creator payouts, twitch.tv, source code for the mobile, desktop and video game console Twitch clients, code related to proprietary SDKs and internal AWS services used by Twitch, data on other Twitch properties like IGDB and CurseForge and, details about the AGS project and information about the platform’s internal security tools.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data loss was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Data is of immense value to cybercriminals in the booming dark web data markets, and this data will appeal to many different cybercriminal operations.
MoneyLion
Exploit: Credential Stuffing
MoneyLion: Financial Services Platform
Risk to Business: 1.712=Severe
That old favorite credential stuffing makes an appearance this week with an attack on the financial services platform MoneyLion. The Utah-based fintech company provides mobile banking services for borrowing, saving, and investing money. MoneyLion informed customers that “an unauthorized outside party appears to have been attempting to gain access to your account on the application using an account password and/or possibly email address that appear to have been potentially compromised in a prior event”. The data breach notice outlined the attacks as taking place over the course of several weeks spanning June and July 2021. The company assured users that no information was stolen.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data loss was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: 8.5 million
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Credential stuffing is a classic that is even easier these days thanks to the huge amount of data that includes huge batches of stolen passwords available on the dark web.
Next Level Apparel
Exploit: Phishing
Next Level Apparel: Clothing Manufacturer
Risk to Business: 2.771 = Moderate
Next Level Apparel, a US-based clothing manufacturer, has announced that several of its employee accounts were compromised in a phishing attack. In a press release late last week, the company noted that cybercriminals were able to access the contents of several employee email accounts at various times between February 17, 2021, and April 28, 2021, including viewing customer and employee PII although the company could not confirm that any data was stolen.
Individual Risk: 2.802 = Moderate
Next Level Apparel noted that the customer and employee data accessible through the compromised accounts included names accompanied by Social Security numbers, financial/checking account numbers, payment card numbers, driver’s license numbers, and limited medical/health information.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business More than 80% of reported security incidents in 2020 were phishing-related, making this the biggest cyberattack vector for every business.
United Kingdom – Welland Park Academy
Exploit: Hacking
Welland Park Academy: Secondary School
Risk to Business: 2.883 = Moderate
Hell hath no fury like an IT employee scorned, as Welland Park Academy discovered after a fired IT admin entered its environment and wreaked havoc. After his termination, the former employee wiped data on the school’s systems and changed all employee credentials. These actions made it impossible for the school to conduct distance learning. The same malicious individual also took revenge on the next company fired from, creating lockout chaos and wiping data at an unnamed IT company, as well as mucking up the company’s phone systems.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Malicious insider threats are a hazard that very business should remember, because vengeful employees can do serious damage quickly.
United Kingdom – The Telegraph
Exploit: Misconfiguration
The Telegraph: News Organization
Risk to Business: 2.122=Severe
UK news giant The Telegraph is in hot water after researchers discovered an unsecured database that exposed an enormous amount of information, an estimated 10 TB of data. Much of the data appears to apply to Apple News customers. The researcher who discovered it noted that at least 1,200 unencrypted contacts were accessible without a password. The Telegraph announced that it quickly secured the database as soon as it was informed of the issue, which impacted less than 0.1% of its subscribers.
Risk to Business: 2.801=Moderate
The exposed information includes internal logs, full subscriber names, email addresses, device info, URL requests, IP addresses, authentication tokens and unique reader identifiers, mostly for users who accessed The Telegraph through Apple News.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business It pays to make sure that companies are building a strong security culture to discourage neglectful practices.
Scotland – Weir
Exploit: Ransomware
Weir: Heavy Equipment Manufacturer
Risk to Business: 1.616 = Severe
Scottish heavy equipment company Weir was hit with a ransomware attack. The BBC reports the company was essentially shut down briefly by the incident, which took place sometime in September 2021, forcing the company to delay shipments of mining equipment worth more than £50m in revenue. The company noted in its release that because the attackers did not exfiltrate or encrypt any data, it was confident that no financial or sensitive data had been stolen about employees or customers.
Individual Impact: No employee or customer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Ransomware gangs don’t just want to steal data anymore. They’re also more than happy to shut down production lines to obatain ransoms.
Scotland – BrewDog
Exploit: Misconfiguration
BrewDog: Bar and Restaurant Chain
Risk to Business: 1.615 = Severe
Scottish bar and restaurant chain BrewDog was responsible for exposing the data of 200,000 shareholders and customers, The company, famous for its crowd-ownership model as well as its beer, exposed that data over an 18-month period through a glitch in its mobile app that hard-coded authentication tokens for users into the mobile application instead of being transmitted to it following a successful user authentication event. Interested parties could simply append any customer ID to the end of the API endpoint URL and access sensitive PII (personally identifiable information) for that customer.
Individual Risk: 1.701 = Severe
Potentially exposed customer/shareholder details include, the customer’s name, date of birth, email address, gender, all previously used delivery addresses, telephone number, number of shares held, shareholder number, bar discount amount, bar discount ID, number of referrals and types of beer previously purchased
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Having this data exposed through a blunder will hurt the reputation of a company that relies on customers as investors to stay in business.
Hong Kong – Fimmick Limited
Exploit: Ransomware
Fimmick Limited: Marketing Company
Risk to Business: 1.631 = Severe
Hong Kong marketing firm Fimmick has been hit with a ransomware attack that is purportedly the work of REvil. Cybersecurity researchers caught wind of the incident after REvil claimed to have burglarized Fimmick’s databases, snatching data that pertained to Fimmick’s work with a number of major brands. Sample data provided on REvil’s website as proof of the hack included data pertaining to the company’s work with Cetaphil, Coca-Cola and Kate Spade.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this breach as of press time, although the sample points to employee information exposure.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Companies that provide services like this are especially tasty targets for ransomware gangs because even if they don’t pay the ransom their data on other businesses opens new doors.
1 – 1.5 = Extreme Risk
1.51 – 2.49 = Severe Risk
2.5 – 3 = Moderate Risk
Risk scores for The Week in Breach are calculated using a formula that considers a wide range of factors related to the assessed breach.
Ransomware is on a round-the-world tour this week, visiting major players like JVCKenwood, Marketron and Sandhills Global.
Sandhills Global
Exploit: Ransomware
Sandhills Global: IT & Digital Publishing
Risk to Business: 1.337 = Extreme
Digital publishing giant Sandhills Global was shut down this week by a ransomware attack. The company handles trade magazines and websites for major publications in the transportation, agricultural, aerospace, heavy machinery and technology industries. Publications that Sandhills produces include TractorHouse, Machinery Trader, Machinery Trader Auction Results, Truck Paper, RentalYard, and AuctionTime, as well as Controller, Executive Controller, and Charter Hub, are among its trade magazines. Sandhills Global’s website, as well as all of their hosted publications, went offline recently, and their phones stopped working after a successful ransomware attack purportedly by Conti. Investigation of the breach and restoration of the impacted sites is underway.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data loss was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
Marketron
Exploit: Ransomware
Marketron: Marketing Services Company
Risk to Business: 1.606=Severe
Marketron has been hit by the busy BlackMatter crew. The company provides cloud-based revenue and traffic management tools for broadcast and media organizations with an emphasis on revenue management and audience engagement. The company disclosed that it had been contacted by the Russian gang on Sunday with a ransom demand. The attack affected the Marketron Traffic, Visual Traffic Cloud, Exchange and Advertiser Portal services. RadioTraffic and RepPak services were not hit in the attack but were taken offline in the aftermath as a precaution and authorities including the FBI were informed. The BlackMatter organization is suspected to be the new guise of DarkSide.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data loss was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: 320,000
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Today’s tricky ransomware landscape holds more traps than many organizations are expecting and the damage can be widespread if an attack strikes home.
Portpass
Exploit: Misconfiguration
Portpass: COVID-19 Vaccine Passport Platform
Risk to Business: 1.636 = Severe
Canadian proof-of-vaccination app Portpass is having misconfiguration problems. That unfortunately led to exposed personal information for more than 650,000 registered users. CBC News reported that the problem was discovered by an anonymous tipster on its website. An investigation revealed that the company had not encrypted any of the data that it was maintaining and some could be viewed in plain text. The company claimed that the data was only exposed for a few minutes, but investigative reporting disproved that claim. The Alberta privacy commissioner’s office said in an emailed statement that it has not yet received a report and the progress of a formal investigation is unclear.
Individual Risk: 1.636 = Severe
A swathe of personal data was exposed on the leaky site for an estimated 650,000 users including email addresses, names, blood types, phone numbers, birthdays, as well as photos of identification like driver’s licenses and passports.
Customers Impacted: 650,000
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Cybercrime threat risk is bad enough without shooting yourself in the foot through sloppy IT practices.
United Kingdom – Giant Group
Exploit: Ransomware
Giant Group: Payroll Services Firm
Risk to Business: 1.713 = Severe
Giant Group, also known as Giant Pay, was hit with a suspected ransomware attack that caused its operations to grind to a halt. The payroll services company was forced to shut down its whole network, including its phone and email systems, in order to begin recovery attempts. The company noted that it was still able to pay 8,000 workers whose contract pay it handled last week, but payees are reporting widespread delays and uncertain timelines for receiving that pay. The investigation is ongoing.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How It Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Cybercriminals know that they can get organizations that need to operate on tight timelines to pay ransoms and they don’t hesitate to take advantage of that fact.
France – TiteLive
Exploit: Ransomware
TiteLive: Bookstore Support Platform Provider
Risk to Business: 1.661=Severe
Bookstores across France, Belgium, and the Netherlands have had a rough week after a suspected ransomware attack crippled the IT systems of TiteLive, a French company that operates a widely used SaaS platform for book sales and inventory management. The attack caused outages of MediaLog, the company’s primary product, used by more than 1,000 bookstores, according to TiteLive’s website. An investigation and recovery are ongoing. No gang has claimed responsibility.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business This is a good illustration of today’s third-party/supply perils. One ransomware attack on a company like this can ripple out to impact many businesses.
A ransomware attack against the Israeli firm E.M.I.T Aviation Consulting is presumed to be the work of LockBit 2.0 after the group claimed responsibility for the incident. The ransomware gang has not yet published any files or sample data as proof of the successful attack, but they’ve scheduled the countdown to the reveal to end on 10/07/21. LockBit operators recently made a splash by setting up their dedicated leak site to also promote the latest variant of their ransomware and advertise the LockBit 2.0 affiliate program after hacking-related posts were banned on a number of Russian forums.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this breach as of press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Ransomware gangs don’t just want consumer data. They’re more than happy to steal trade secrets and national security-related documents too.
Technology retailer Aquila Technology, based in Lower Hutt, has disclosed that the company has been affected by a data breach. This breach is suspected to be the result of credential compromise. The company suggests that all customers reset their passwords immediately. Aquila Technology has formally notified the Privacy Commissioner and an investigation is underway.
Individual Risk: 1.699 = Severe
The company said in its statement that some customers may have had personal and credit card information compromised, but no further information was available at press time.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Credit card information is highly desitrable on the dark web, spurring a fresh round of attacks on retailers, es[pecially those that maintain large databases.
Japan – JVCKenwood
Exploit: Ransomware
JVCKenwood: Audio Equipment Manufacturer
Risk to Business: 1.699 = Severe
Conti ransomware came calling at JVCKenwood this week. The Japanese audio equipment powerhouse. The threat actors claim to have stolen 1.7 TB of data and are demanding a cool $7 million ransom in crypto. JVCKenwood disclosed that servers belonging to its sales companies in Europe were breached on September 22nd, and the threat actors may have accessed data during the attack. The extortionists published a sample of the stolen data as proof of their success, and it appears to be a scanned passport for a JVCKenwood employee.
Individual Impact: No consumer PII or financial data exposure was disclosed in this breach as of press time, although the sample points to employee information exposure.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business Big companies have big targets painted on their backs for ransomware gangs because they have deep pockets to exploit.
1 – 1.5 = Extreme Risk
1.51 – 2.49 = Severe Risk
2.5 – 3 = Moderate Risk
Risk scores for The Week in Breach are calculated using a formula that considers a wide range of factors related to the assessed breach.
It’s Double Trouble Week! Cybercriminals are double-dipping in an array of industries including agriculture, healthcare, customer service and real estate plus why data breach risk is on the rise again.
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United States – Marcus & Millichap Exploit: Ransomware Marcus & Millichap: Real Estate Investment Firm >> Read full details on our blog
