Latest Cybersecurity News 2022-04-19 Edition

Follow ISA Cybersecurity on LinkedIn for the latest cybersecurity news

Weekly CyberTip: Secure your Wi-Fi network

Just as you shouldn’t share your passwords, you also shouldn’t share your network. Whether at home or in the workplace, be sure to provide visitors with a separate guest Wi-Fi network. This is crucial in protecting your main network from any malware that could be lurking in a guest’s device.

‘Sophisticated’ breach at Rideau Hall, internal documents show

The breach of an internal computer network at Rideau Hall late last year was described to senior government officials as a “sophisticated cyber incident,” newly released records reveal.

The documents, obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act, include internal government emails that state officials were “unable to confirm the full extent of the information that was accessed.”

The emails indicate several senior officials were advised of the breach two weeks before the event was made public.

In a Dec. 2 news release, the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General said there was “unauthorized access to its internal network” and that it was working on the investigation with the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. It also mentioned efforts to improve computer networks as well as consultation with the federal privacy commissioner’s office.

U.S. data breach disclosures surge 14% in Q1

The number of publicly reported data breaches in the U.S. increased by double digits year-over-year in the first three months of 2022, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).

It’s the third consecutive year that the U.S. non-profit organization reported a rise in Q1 figures.  

The ITRC study also shows 92% of breaches were a result of cyber attacks, with phishing and ransomware as the top two causes overall.

Other findings of the Q1 2022 report show:

– 154 out of 367 data breach notices did not include the cause of the breach, making “unknown” the largest attack vector.

– System and human error represented 8% of data compromises.

– Healthcare, manufacturing and utilities, professional services and financial services had the most compromises.

Eva Velasquez, President and CEO of the ITRC, explained that Q1 typically accounts for the lowest number of data breaches in the year.

“The fact the number of breach events in Q1 represents a double-digit increase over the same time last year is another indicator that data compromises will continue to rise in 2022 after setting a new all-time high in 2021,” she said.

Panasonic Canada hit with cyber attack

Panasonic has confirmed another breach less than six months after its last high-profile cyber attack.

This time cybercriminals took aim at the company’s Canadian operations. In a statement to TechCrunch, a spokesperson for Panasonic said the February breach affected its systems, processes and networks.

According to VX-Underground, a malware research group, the Conti ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The gang, which has previously targeted Shutterfly and Ireland’s healthcare system, claims to have stolen over 2.8 gigabytes of data from Panasonic Canada.

When asked by TechCrunch, Panasonic did not dispute that the incident was the result of a ransomware attack.

This latest Panasonic breach is its fourth incident in just three years. Last November the company admitted that its network was “illegally accessed by a third party.” Two months later, Panasonic revealed that hackers had accessed personal information belonging to job candidates and interns. And in 2020, Panasonic’s India operations were hit by ransomware, which led to hackers leaking four gigabytes of data, including financial information and email addresses.

Microsoft, windows, building

Microsoft says Windows under attack

Microsoft is warning its millions of users around the world that China-based state-sponsored hackers are using malware to bypass Windows’ defences.

In a blog post this week, the tech giant says its cybersecurity teams have detected “defence evasion malware” that uses Windows Task Scheduler to hide a device’s compromised status from itself.

Microsoft says the new malware, dubbed Tarrask, is coming from Hafnium, the cyber espionage group behind the Microsoft Exchange breach of 2021. The data stolen during last year’s incident is suspected to have aided AI innovations by the Chinese government.

Microsoft has provided high-level recommendations on how to combat Tarrask on its blog post which includes enumerating Windows environment registry hives, modifying audit policies and enabling and centralizing Task Scheduler logs.

NEWSLETTER

Get exclusively curated cyber insights and news in your inbox

Related Posts

Contact Us Today

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly proprietary, curated updates on the latest cyber news.