Security News for the Week Ending December 18, 2020

Data from employment firm Automation Personnel Services Leaked

Automation Personnel Services, a provider of temporary employment services, found 440 gigabytes of their data leaked on the dark web. The poster says that it includes payroll, accounting and legal documents.

The data was leaked because the company refused to pay the ransom.

When asked if the data was genuine, the company only said that they are working with forensics firms and are improving their security. Credit: Cybernews

Are Hospitals Protecting Your Data?

The Register is reporting that two thousand servers containing 45 million images of X-rays and other medical scans were left online during the course of the past twelve months, freely accessible by anyone, with no security protections at all.

To make matters worse, apparently hackers had been there before the researchers and left all kinds of malware behind. Will anyone get in trouble over this? Probably not. Credit: The Register

Ya Know Those Smart TVs? Maybe Not So Smart to Use?

Ponder this. Most TVs are made in China. Smart TVs connect to the Internet. There is Internet in China. China makes the chips that go into those TVs. And the software that goes into those chips. The executives for at least some of those companies have a documented connection to the Chinese government and/or military. China might be very interested in hearing what goes on in everyone’s living room. And bedroom. Including your kids’ bedroom. Some smart TVs have cameras in addition to microphones. Connect the dots; I am not allowed to. Credit: US Department of Homeland Security

Ransomware Attacks on the Rise and Insurers React

As ransomware attacks increased this year – both in terms of cost and severity, insurers are becoming more selective and some are scaling back their coverage. Total costs of ransom payments doubled between 1H2019 and 1H2020, but that might change going forward now that the feds are threatening to throw people in jail if they pay ransoms to terrorists. This means that some premiums are going up and some carriers are even getting out of the cyber risk insurance business. Credit: Reuters

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