Is there a word for the week between Christmas and New Years where time seems to just move differently? Cyber experts know that hackers never take a week off – and in fact, tend to capitalize on these “quiet” times. Here are some of the latest security updates capping off the year.

NO NEW PATIENTS: A New Jersey hospital halted patient admissions due to “an IT security issue” – which is currently under investigation, according to NJ.com. CentraState Medical Center in Freehold diverted all new and incoming patients, though patient care had not been adversely affected, according to the report. The story…

AMONG OTHER DISRUPTIONS FOR THE WEEK: We’ve got the closing of the Harrington Raceway & Casino in Delaware due to a “temporary disruption.” Bristol Community College in Massachusetts has shut down campus internet access thanks to a breach. Plus, Howard Memorial Hospital down in Arkansas just had a breach that may impact patient and employee security and confidentiality.

IMAGINE PAYING $44 BILLION FOR THIS:  If you missed it, Piers Morgan’s Twitter account was really, really hacked over the Christmas holiday, and many are confident that his and other high-profile user data was leaked in a June 2021 bug. By July of 2022, Twitter insiders came to find that this bug was exploited to the tune of 400,000,000 users’ data. All this based on research from Israeli cyber-intelligence firm Hudson Rock, as reported by The Guardian.

TIKTOK’S FINAL COUNTDOWN: Leaving out the obvious cultural decay that TikTok has reaped upon America’s youth, the security threat it brings should be enough to concern any fairly savvy lawmaker. Governors across the United States have announced bans on the use of this app for state employees, and a ban was also included in the massive $1.7 trillion spending bill for all government-issued devices… making it, likely, possibly, the least expensive line item on the bill. Broader story from Stateline.org.

LOOKING FOR THE BEST RECAP OF 2022?: KrebsonSecurity celebrated 13 years in business earlier this week – no small feat in a dynamic industry like this one. To celebrate, the site posted a full year-in-review – definitely an ideal read for putting your arms around the biggest stories in security for 2022. Remember when Norton was installing crypto-mining software on customers’ computers? Yeah, that was this year.

Hackers Don’t Take This Week Off: Wee …

Industry News Posted by Jen Greco on Dec 30, 2022