Tag Archive for: battles

UK battles hacking wave as ransomware gang claims ‘biggest ever’ NHS breach

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The U.K.’s largest NHS trust has confirmed it’s investigating a ransomware incident as the country’s public sector continues to battle a rising wave of cyberattacks.

Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs five London-based hospitals and serves more than 2.5 million patients, was recently added to the dark web leak site of the ALPHV ransomware gang. The gang, also known as BlackCat, says it has stolen 70 terabytes of sensitive data in what it claims is the biggest breach of healthcare data in the United Kingdom.

Samples of the allegedly stolen data, seen by TechCrunch, include employee identification documents, including passports and driver licenses, and internal emails labeled “confidential.”

When asked by TechCrunch, a Barts Health spokesperson did not dispute that it was affected by a security incident that involved the exfiltration of data, nor did they dispute the legitimacy of the stolen data samples shared by ALPHV. “We are aware of claims of a ransomware attack and are urgently investigating,” the spokesperson, who did not provide their name, told TechCrunch.

ALPHV, which first listed Barts Health on June 30, wrote that the NHS Trust had three days to contact the gang to prevent the publication of data, “most of it citizens [sic] confidential documents.” At the time of writing, the full trove of allegedly stolen data has not been published.

This incident is the second breach of NHS data in recent weeks. As first reported by the Independent, a June ransomware attack on the U.K.’s University of Manchester saw hackers access an NHS dataset that holds information on 1.1 million patients across 200 hospitals. The compromised data — gathered by the university for research purposes — includes NHS numbers and the first three letters of patients’ postcodes, according to reports.

When asked by TechCrunch, University of Manchester spokesperson Ben Robinson declined to comment on the reported theft of NHS data, but confirmed that the university had experienced a security incident that led to the exfiltration of data from its systems.

“We confirmed on 23 June that our systems have been accessed and student and alumni data has been copied. Individuals have…

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City of Flagstaff battles state over minimum wage | Kingman Daily Miner

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PHOENIX – The outcome of a legal fight between Flagstaff and state lawmakers could affect the decision by residents of other cities whether they want to impose their own minimum wage.

Attorney Roopali Desai who represents the city wants a judge to void a provision in the new state budget assessing the city more than $1.1 million. That is supposed to represent the additional costs borne by the state between the current $12.15 an hour in Arizona law and the higher figure approved by Flagstaff voters in 2016, currently set at $15.

In new filings in Maricopa County Superior Court, Desai disputes the figure.

She noted the Flagstaff ordinance specifically exempts state employees. And Desai said some of the other claims of higher costs, like from Coconino Community College, really are not obligations of the state.

But the heart of her claim is that the provision itself is unconstitutional.

Desai pointed out that both the original 2006 statewide initiative that first established a state minimum wage and a 2016 revision that increased the numbers specifically allow local communities to establish their own wage laws. The only requirement is that the figure be at least as much as what the state requires.

She contends the law requiring the reimbursement runs afoul of the Voter Protection Act, a constitutional provision which bars the Legislature from repealing or altering anything approved at the ballot box.

The only exception is when a legislative act “furthers the purpose” of what voters approved, something Desai said this does not do. And even if it did, she said it would still require a three-fourths vote of both the House and Senate, which this measure did not get.

The state is fighting the measure, with an emergency hearing set for later this month before Judge James Smith.

Katie Conner, spokeswoman for Attorney General Mark Brnovich, said he is defending the law because it will “protect taxpayers from having to absorb the costs associated with a city or town’s decision to raise the minimum wage.”

Central to the fight is a provision that first appeared in the 2019-2020 budget. It allows the Legislature to allocate – and the state…

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Amazon battles leaky S3 buckets with a new security tool

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A new AWS feature is supposed to help avoid accidental misconfigurations that could result in sensitive data being exposed, a company’s brand being damaged, and even – potentially – put its customers at risk.

Read more in my article on the Bitdefender Business Insights blog.

Graham Cluley