Security News for the Week Ending October 22, 2021
State Acknowledges Data Breach After 10 Months
I guess better late than never. Finally, the State of Illinois is admitting to a data breach, sort of. Here is what they are now saying. Check the dates below. Notice who was among the last to know – the victims. Can the state be fined for breaking the law? We shall see.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, 45 CFR Sections 164.400-414, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) and the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) (collectively the Departments) in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) are notifying the media of an incident within the State of Illinois Integrated Eligibility System (IES).
IES is the eligibility system of record for State-funded medical benefits programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). On November 24, 2020, the State discovered an issue within IES. Upon investigation, the Departments discovered that household members who were once on a case and had their access removed could still see information even after they were no longer part of that case.
In response to this incident, on January 8, 2021, IES was updated to limit case access to only the head of household, and prior and other current household members no longer have access. To date, the Departments are unaware of any actual or attempted misuse of personal information as a result of the incident and the number of potentially affected individuals was limited.
The Departments notified the members of the Illinois General Assembly on July 29, 2021, the potentially affected individuals on September 9, 2021, and the Office of the Illinois Attorney General on September 10, 2021.
Tesco Launches First Checkout-Free Store in London
Following in line with companies like Amazon, retailers like Tesco in London are working on letting customers shop in their stores and not having to stop at the checkout line. This is done with a crazy number of cameras and sensors. My guess is that they are willing to take some losses in the short term to try and figure out the weak spots and how people plan to game the system, but this is surveillance to the the max. It requires that you have their app and they will automatically charge your credit card, which has to be on file. Me, I’m okay with the checkout line. Credit: Computing
Facebook Plans to Rebrand Itself
Okay, this is not really security related, but fun for Friday. Facebook, apparently, wants to rebrand itself. They have been quiet about this but will announce the new name at their annual conference this month. Note that they didn’t ask for suggestions; they probably would have gotten a bunch that referred to different body parts than people’s faces. But, this is kind of like what Google did with Alphabet a couple of years ago. Facebook as a company has lots of brands and it probably doesn’t make sense, any more, for the parent company to still be called Facebook. Credit: Computing
CISA Wants the 24 Hour Breach Reporting Law for Incidents
There are bills working their way through Congress right now that would make it mandatory that certain companies report breaches and some attacks within either 24 or 72 hours, depending on the bill. CISA is putting its weight behind 24 hours. This probably will include anything designated as critical infrastructure, which is a lot, and possibly some others. Stay tuned to see what passes. Companies would rather keep hacks secret, if possible, but if the bill passes and companies might be fined or executives go to jail, they will probably disclose. The disclosure would be to the government, probably, and not publicly. Credit: FCW
CISA Says Ransomware Targeted SCADA Systems of 3 US Water Treatment Plants
The FBI, CISA, EPA and NSA issued a joint alert saying that cyberattacks against water and wastewater treatment plants are up. They revealed that the industrial control system (ICS) or SCADA systems at three plants had been hit by ransomware and that the malware had been lurking inside for about a month before it launched the attacks. They target the outdated software and poorly configured hardware of these systems and it is a pretty easy attack. Drinking water is the primary target, they say. My guess is that they do that because poisoning people will create more chaos. Credit: Hack Read
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