The U.S. government is urging senior politicians and high-ranking officials to lock down their devices amid the ongoing Chinese breaches of at least eight major telecom providers. In an advisory on Wednesday, U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA said that “highly-targeted officials,” including those in government, should enable advanced security features, such as Apple’s Lockdown Mode, which […]
GPS tracking firm Hapn is exposing the names of thousands of its customers due to a website bug, TechCrunch has learned. A security researcher alerted TechCrunch in late November to customer names and affiliations — such as the name of their workplace — spilling from one of Hapn’s servers, which TechCrunch has seen. Hapn, formerly
Tracker firm Hapn spilling names of thousands of GPS tracking customers Read More »
A ransomware attack earlier this year on UnitedHealth-owned health tech company Change Healthcare likely stands as one of the largest data breaches of U.S. health and medical data in history. Months after the February data breach, a “substantial proportion of people living in America” are receiving notice by mail that their personal and health information
How the ransomware attack at Change Healthcare went down: A timeline Read More »
The U.S. state of Nebraska has sued the healthtech giant Change Healthcare over a series of alleged security failings that resulted in a historical data breach exposing the sensitive health information of at least 100 million Americans. In a complaint filed this week, Nebraska’s attorney general Mike Hilgers claims UnitedHealth-owned Change Healthcare failed to implement
The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center confirmed hackers accessed the personal and sensitive health data of over 1.4 million individuals during a September cyberattack. The cyberattack, which also affected TTUHSC’s El Paso campus, saw attackers steal information including Social Security numbers, financial account information, government-issued ID details, and health information — including medical records
Texas medical school says hackers stole sensitive health data of 1.4 million individuals Read More »
Paragon, an Israeli spyware maker that has largely kept a low profile in recent years, was acquired last week by American private equity giant AE Industrial Partners, according to Israeli news reports. Tech news website Calcalist reported that the investment firm bought Paragon for $500 million, and depending on how the company grows, the deal
Israeli spyware maker Paragon bought by U.S. private equity giant Read More »
Arctic Wolf has acquired Cylance, BlackBerry’s beleaguered cybersecurity business, for $160 million — a significant write-down from the $1.4 billion BlackBerry paid to acquire the company in 2018. Under the terms of the deal, which is expected to close in BlackBerry’s fiscal Q4, BlackBerry will sell its Cylance assets to Arctic Wolf for $160 million
BlackBerry sells Cylance for $160M, a fraction of the $1.4B it paid in 2018 Read More »
Cybersecurity practitioners take a community-driven approach to solving problems. Security researchers share the vulnerabilities they find with the broader cybersecurity community, which allows companies to patch up their security holes before something catastrophic happens. Prequel is looking to bring that same approach to software. The startup is building a database of software failure patterns or
Prequel is building a community-driven approach to finding software bugs Read More »
This year, a Serbian journalist and an activist had their phones hacked by local authorities using a cellphone-unlocking device made by forensic tool maker Cellebrite. The authorities’ goal was not only to unlock the phones to access their personal data, as Cellebrite allows, but also to install spyware to enable further surveillance, according to a
Serbian police used Cellebrite to unlock, then plant spyware, on a journalist’s phone Read More »
Healthcare giant Optum has restricted access to an internal AI chatbot used by employees after a security researcher found it was publicly accessible online, and anyone could access it using only a web browser. The chatbot, which TechCrunch has seen, allowed employees to ask the company questions about how to handle patient health insurance claims
