Security News Bites for April 25, 2025
More Countries Issue Travel Advisories for Travel to US
The White House is trying to spin growing international concerns over travel to the U.S. in response to U.S. immigration and transgender rights policies, among other issues. Countries updating their advisories include New Zealand, Germany and the U.K, citing concerns over terrorism, civil unrest and stricter U.S. immigration laws. Credit: MSN
Two CISA Officials in Charge of “Secure by Design” Quit
Two top officials have resigned from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), furthering fears of a brain drain amid White House cuts to the federal workforce. You have to assume that the best and the brightest will be leading the exodus since they will have multiple job offers for more money before they leave the building. The placeholder head of CISA (it currently has no director) said that CISA is laser-focused on improving the nation’s cybersecurity as it works on firing about 40 percent of the folks doing just that. You have to assume that there will be more nation-state funded cyberattacks and less warnings as our adversaries take advantage of the chaos. Credit: The Register
When is 32,234 Really 263,893?
Kelly Benefits, an outsourced benefits and payroll management service, notified regulators last month of a breach. At the time, they said it affected 32,234 people. Now they are saying that it affected 263,893. They were pretty accurate the first time, I guess. Information stolen includes identity (name, social, birth date, etc.), health (medical, insurance) and financial information. Not good. Credit: Data Breach Today
Retailer Marks & Spencer Breach Gets Worse – Shuts Down Online Orders
This is every company’s worst nightmare. They get hit by a cyberattack and decide not to shut down their systems and just power their way through it. That is what Marks & Spencer tried after an unspecified cyberattack. But now, after shutting down a couple of services to try and contain the malware, they, apparently, realized, to quote some brave NASA astronauts, HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. At this point, customers do not know how bad the problem is or what they should do. M&S is just trying to protect their short term revenue stream and not upset customers. We will see if that works. Credit: The Register
What Happens When the Big Guns Get Hacked
For many people, they have never heard of Wolters Kluwer. Some of us know them well. $7 billion in revenue; many customers in the Fortune 500. And many small companies use them too. They are in health, tax and accounting, corporate performance, finance and other industries. Their customers are the Fortune 500. Their customers are you. That means the potential span of this breach could be very large. I talk about third party breaches all their time. This is what is called a fourth party breach – one more level removed but not any less lethal. Just harder for you to prevent. If you need help with fourth party or more breach prevention, please contact us. Credit: Cybernews
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