Tag Archive for: california

Activision Blizzard accused by California watchdog of fostering ‘frat boy’ culture, fatally toxic atmosphere • The Register

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California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing on Thursday sued Activision Blizzard and its subsidiaries, alleging the company fostered a “frat boy” culture that led to lower pay for female employees, sex and race discrimination, and sexual harassment.

According to the lawsuit, as an example of the effects of this toxic culture, a female worker killed herself on a company trip due to a sexual relationship she had with her male boss.

“All employers should ensure that their employees are being paid equally and take all steps to prevent discrimination, harassment, and retaliation,” said dept director Kevin Kish in a statement [PDF]. “This is especially important for employers in male-dominated industries, such as technology and gaming.”

Activision Blizzard, the gaming behemoth forged in 2008 and based in Santa Monica, California, makes popular computer games such as Diablo, Call of Duty, and World of Warcraft, and runs online gaming service Battle.net.

Accusations of sexism, sexual harassment, and pay inequality have dogged the gaming industry for decades, as demonstrated recently by “gamergate” in 2014 and 2015 and harassment claims at UbiSoft in 2020. But as the “#MeToo” movement has shown, workplace hostility toward women extends far beyond electronic entertainment.

An Activision Blizzard spokesperson told The Register in an emailed statement the gaming biz takes these issues seriously and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) allegations don’t reflect its current workplace.

We note that one Blizzard executive identified in the complaint, “so known to engage in harassment of females that his suite was nicknamed the ‘Crosby Suite’ after alleged rapist Bill Crosby,” appears to have quietly left the company around June 2020. A DFEH spokesperson tentatively confirmed that this is a misspelling of “Cosby,”…

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How California schools are fighting ransomware attacks

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As ransomware attacks target them, some California schools are scrambling to respond while others have done little to protect themselves.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Schools aren’t exactly known for their expansive budgets. Many struggle to pay for basic operations such as functioning air conditioning and employee salaries.  

But this past year, cybercriminals have attacked a growing number of schools across California and the country. A handful of California schools, colleges and universities have experienced ransomware attacks, often with harsh consequences: Sierra College had some systems shut down during finals week, Newhall School District’s 10 elementary schools went a week without online school during the pandemic, and UC San Francisco paid a $1.14 million ransom.

While hospitals and oil pipelines might seem lucrative, schools hardly scream “Jackpot!”

The average ransom paid by mid-sized organizations across the world in 2021 is about $170,000, according to a survey by London-based software company Sophos. Still, cybercriminals try to make their ransoms affordable. UC Berkeley cybersecurity researcher Nick Merrill said he thinks would-be thieves will charge as much as schools are willing to pay.

“At the end of the day, (the criminals) don’t want this to drag out for a long time, that increases their liability,” he said. “I’m guessing they’ll pick the highest number that they think you’ll pay quickly.”

Ransomware attacks are increasing against schools not only in California but across the country, according to several experts. How schools respond and what security measures they have in place are evolving rapidly. 

What do cyber criminals do first?

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Under Attack: California Schools Face Ransomware Threat

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Sixth grade teacher Hilary Hall had just started teaching one Monday morning in September when her teacher’s group chats at Newhall School District exploded with confused messages. Teachers in the Santa Clarita school district — located just north of Los Angeles — were panicking.

While Hall had no issues logging onto her computer from home, many of her colleagues, connected to the school district’s server, were met with a mysterious pop-up message.

It said users wouldn’t be able to log into the server.

People turned to Hall, co-president of the district’s teacher’s union, for information, but she didn’t know what was going on, either.

A few minutes later, an answer arrived via phone call from each grade’s head teacher: The school district, all 10 schools representing under 6,000 children, had been hit with a ransomware attack. All teachers were instructed to log off immediately.

“Read a book!” Hall told the kids in her class, trying to think of educational activities on the spot as she quickly logged off.

While incidents like the Colonial pipeline ransomware attack and the Kaseya attack received international attention, schools and universities have also been on the wrong end of cybercriminals.

Experts interviewed by CalMatters — including researchers, cybersecurity companies, IT employees and the FBI — all agree the number of cyberattacks has increased over the pandemic. Many believe the number of attacks on the education sector has also increased, but it’s an area so new to cybercrime that there’s virtually no comprehensive data on it.

Emsisoft, a New Zealand-based software company, expects these data theft attacks to double in 2021.

California schools, colleges and universities have scrambled to adjust. In the past five years, more than two dozen California school systems have been targeted, from Rialto Unified School District in San Bernardino to Stanford University’s School of Medicine.

Prior to the ransomware attack last September, Newhall had implemented what experts consider common sense security measures like internal firewalls to prevent malicious software from affecting entire systems. A few…

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Verizon, Southern California Water Supplier Among Those hit in Suspected Chinese Hack

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Verizon and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California were two high-value targets hit by a suspected Chinese-backed hack that was first brought to the public’s attention in April, the Associated Press reported.



a group of people walking down the street: Pedestrians cross Herald Square in front of a Verizon Wireless store in New York on Friday, March 18, 2016. Verizon was one of the high-value targets in the Pulse cyberespionage campaign.

© Richard Levine/Corbis via Getty Images
Pedestrians cross Herald Square in front of a Verizon Wireless store in New York on Friday, March 18, 2016. Verizon was one of the high-value targets in the Pulse cyberespionage campaign.

Pulse Connect Secure networking devices are used by many companies and governments to allow secure remote access to their networks and those were the targets of the hacks. The Chinese government was suspected of backing the hacks, but China has denied any role.

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Verizon, which has over 120 million subscribers through Verizon Wireless, said a Pulse-related compromise was found in one of its labs. The hack was quickly dealt with, and Verizon said no data or customer information had been accessed or stolen.

“We know that bad actors try to compromise our systems,” said Verizon spokesman Rich Young. “That is why internet operators, private companies and all individuals need to be vigilant in this space.”

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the country’s largest water agency, provides water to 19 million people and operates some of the largest treatment plants worldwide, reported it also found a compromised device after an alert issued in April.

The device was immediately removed from service and spokeswoman Rebecca Kimitch said there was “no known data exfiltration” and no systems or processes were known to be affected.

The Associated Press reported earlier this month that the country’s largest subway system in New York City was also breached during the hack.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

Security researchers say dozens of other high-value entities that have not yet been named were also targeted as part of the breach of Pulse Secure.

It’s unclear what sensitive information, if any, was accessed. Some of the targets said they did not see any evidence of data being stolen. That uncertainty is common in cyberespionage and it can take months to determine data loss,…

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