Tag Archive for: attorney

District attorney offices statewide affected by ransomware attack

/in


Mar. 14—The New Mexico Administrative Office of the District Attorneys was still trying to get its two main computer servers working again Thursday after a ransomware attack locked prosecutors across the state out of their files Wednesday morning.

“We are currently working to resolve the issue and optimistic it will be resolved sometime today,” said Henry Valdez, the agency’s director, in an interview Thursday.

He explained the cyberattack: “It comes in however it can, then encrypts your files so you can’t access them and then says you have to pay a certain amount and if you don’t they never release the encryption.”

Valdez said the two computer servers affected by the attack are in Albuquerque but serve offices in the 13 judicial districts throughout New Mexico. The Santa Fe-based server near his office has not been affected, he added.

Work at the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which serves Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties, was hindered by the attack, a spokesman confirmed.

“The FJDA can confirm that we are experiencing issues with our case management system, as well as other internal systems. This has resulted in an inability for our staff to work as they are normally accustomed,” spokesman Nathan Lederman wrote in an email.

“We have been informed that our computer systems have been hacked statewide,” District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies wrote in an email Wednesday to judges and others in the district.

“As such, we have no access to any files/drives/folders. Nothing,” she wrote.

“AODA is attempting to fix the situation but it appears that malware and/or ransomware has attacked the systems and this may take the rest of the week,” she added.

The Judicial Information Division Service desk sent an email to judges Thursday warning staff to use caution when opening electronic communications from the District Attorney’s Office.

“Until further notice anything we receive from the district attorney’s office, even from trusted sources, needs to be thoroughly reviewed,” the email says. “All emails from any DA email address should be carefully examined especially if it contains any sort of attachment or hyperlink that would take you to a website.”

Source…

Attorney weighs in on Norton ransomware attack letter

/in


LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Many Kentuckians recently got a letter in the mail from Norton Healthcare that said their personal information may have been stolen in a cyber attack.

What You Need To Know

  • Around 2.5 million people received a letter informing them their information may have been stolen in a ransomware attack on Norton Healthcare

  • The hospital system sent out the letter more than half a year after it discovered the attack

  • Norton said it took time to analyze the breach

  • A prominent attorney with Morgan & Morgan said waiting months to notify impacted patients is a problem because it leaves them at risk without notification that they need to protect themselves

It has been more than half a year since the Louisville-based hospital system first reported what it at the time called a “cyber event.”

Attorney John Yanchunis, who leads Morgan & Morgan’s consumer class action practice, said waiting that long to inform patients about the breach is a “real problem.”

“Obviously, a company following a breach will investigate,” Yanchunis said. “By law, most states require notification to the consumer within 30 days. There will be probably repercussions to the entity for having delayed. The problem with that is that consumers not having received timely notice aren’t put on notice that they need to protect themselves.”

According to Norton Healthcare, the letter was sent to around 2.5 million people. The letter said an unauthorized individual got access to the company’s network storage devices between May 7-9.

It said information obtained in the breach could include a patient’s name, birth date, social security number, driver’s license number, contact information, health records, financial account numbers and even digital signatures, along with other personal and identifying information.

At the time of the hacking, Norton had to take its network offline, as it received a fax with threats and demands. The company worked with forensic investigators. The letter said the breach took time to analyze.

In the letter, Norton offers two years of credit monitoring for patients who may have been affected through Kroll. The company provides credit monitoring services; however,

Source…

Former Trump attorney worked with tech firm to hack Coffee County vote | News

/in


Source…

Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco Delivers Keynote Address at International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) 2022 | OPA

/in


Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thanks so much, Ed. It’s great to be back at Fordham and ICCS. It’s also great to be sharing the stage with another former federal prosecutor – President Tetlow. I see great colleagues and friends in the audience from my previous tours at the White House and the government. It’s also great to be here in person for the first time since COVID began.

The FBI and Fordham University convene this forum for experts and leaders to discuss the complex cybersecurity challenges facing our country. And every year, those challenges get more and more pressing.

The last time I spoke here, I sat in a different seat in government; I was President Obama’s Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor. I was part of the team that briefed him every morning on the urgent threats facing our nation. And over those years, I spent more and more time during that morning briefing him on cyber threats – in particular, nation-state actors.

Since returning to the government and in my current seat as the Deputy Attorney General, I have been struck by an evolution: malicious cyber actors becoming more aggressive, more sophisticated, more belligerent and brazen – and an increased blurring of the line between state-sponsored cyberattacks and attacks by criminal groups.

At the Justice Department, keeping the American people safe from all threats, foreign and domestic, is an essential part of our mission. That is why, over the last year, we have been focusing on attacking cyber threats from every angle. We are taking a proactive approach to the threat. That approach has been informed by a Comprehensive Cyber Review conducted over the last year – the final report of which we are releasing today.

Building on the work of cyber experts in the Justice Department from across Administrations, our focus has been on increasing our capacity to disrupt and to respond to malicious cyber activity. And the report we release today reflects what we have learned over the last year, including the need to prioritize prevention, to ensure we are doing all we can to help victims, and above all else – to use all the tools at our disposal, working with partners here and around…

Source…