Tag Archive for: florida

South Florida Litigation Targets IT Service Provider After Ransomware Attack

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Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani filed a data breach lawsuit Thursday in Florida Southern District Court on behalf of JustTech LLC. The suit targets an IT services provider Kaseya US LLC in relation to a ransomware incident which occurred in 2021. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 1:22-cv-22454, Justtech, LLC v. Kaseya US LLC.

This lawsuit was surfaced by Law.com Radar, a source for high-speed legal news and litigation updates personalized to your practice. Law.com Radar publishes daily updates on just-filed federal cases like this one. Click here to get started and be first to know about new suits in your region, practice area or client sector.

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Florida Gov. DeSantis scolds students for wearing face masks

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TAMPA, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis made his frustration with face masks known at a press conference Wednesday morning.

DeSantis was at the University of South Florida to announce funding for cybersecurity education. Before taking the podium to address the audience, the governor scolded a group of high school students behind him who were wearing face masks, WFLA reports.

“You do not have to wear those masks,” DeSantis said. “I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything and we’ve gotta stop with this COVID theater. So if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous.”

Hillsborough School District said there were seven students in attendance at the press conference who all attend Middleton High School in Tampa.

“We are excited our students from Middleton High School were highlighted as part of the statewide focus around cyber security education,” said Hillsborough Schools Superintendent Addison Davis.

“Our Cyber Security pathway at MHS has had tremendous success through student’s earning industry certifications, participating in internships and leading the way in computer systems and information technology. As always, our students should be valued and celebrated.

“It is a student and parents’ choice to protect their health in a way they feel most appropriate. We are proud of the manner in which our students represented themselves and our school district.”

The Florida governor’s opposition to masks is no secret. He made a series of moves last year to block mask mandates, even signing an executive order withholding state funds from schools that impose them.

In February, he endorsed a House proposal to strip $200 million in funding from 12 school districts that defied his order banning mask mandates.

Last month, he also said parents should be given the power to sue school districts if they have a child who “was illegally forced-masked this year in Florida.” DeSantis said students who have speech, emotional and physical problems should also be able to sue.

The…

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Florida Man Faces 75 Child-Porn Counts in Hacking Probe After Computer Seizure

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Brandon Diaz Florida Man Child Porn
Florida registered nurse Brandon Diaz faces 75 child-pornography counts.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office
Florida Man Brandon Diaz Child Porn Charges
Brandon Diaz was charged with over 85 counts in a hacking bust that also led to child-pornography charges, police said. Above, an unidentified man is pictured in handcuffs in this undated file photo.
ronstik/Getty

A Florida man is facing 86 criminal charges, accused of possessing child pornography while being investigated for hacking the computers of his former workplace, police said.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said during a Thursday press conference that 38-year-old Brandon James Diaz, a registered nurse who worked at Polk State College as an emergency medical services program coordinator, was found to possess 75 “very graphic” images of children and infants being sexually assaulted after detectives seized his computer as part of their hacking investigation.

“While we’re doing our due diligence, looking through his computer pursuant to a search warrant, voila! We find child porn,” Judd said.

“If he hadn’t messed up by hacking the computers, we at least at this moment in time wouldn’t have known he was accessing child porn,” he added.

The sheriff said that although Diaz was a married father of four, an investigation did not uncover any evidence that his own children had been abused. A $386,000 bond was set for Diaz during his initial court appearance on Monday.

Public records indicate that Diaz was booked into Polk County Jail on Friday. He was charged with 75 felony counts of enhanced possession of child pornography, using a two-way device to commit a felony and 10 counts of accessing a computer without authorization.

After Diaz’s employer Lakeland Regional Health fired him earlier this year for failing a drug test, he turned his anger toward Polk State College under the belief that two instructors at the college were responsible for the loss of his job, police said.

“… He hacked into computers at Polk State College, and specifically he hacked at least two instructors’ computers for which he blames all of his problems,” Judd said.

The college notified the sheriff’s office after discovering that its network had been hacked. Judd said an instructor noticed that Diaz had changed a…

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Florida Heart Associates recovering from ransomware hack

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CAPE CORAL, FLA — Cybersecurity experts, like Florida Gulf Coast University’s Eugene Hoyt, say hacking is on the rise.

“It’s a serious uptick right now,” he said, “So it’s not just the large government agencies being hacked, you’re having local government’s being hacked and all the way down to individuals.”

And one of the more popular types being used is ransomware.

“Basically trying to get you to click on links that look legit to gain access to your computer,” he said.

Once the hackers are in, they lock down your system and demand a ransom to release it.

So, should you pay the ransom?

“I highly say ‘no,'” said Hoyt.

However, Hoyt also adds that sometimes companies have to pay or risk losing everything.

It’s a sticky situation that the CEO of Florida Heart Associates, Todd Rauchenberger, tells FOX 4 the company found itself in, in May.

They ultimately chose not to pay and were able to get control back, but not before hackers took down their phone lines and essentially destroyed their entire system.

The family of an FHA patient says they’ve been trying to get their loved one seen by a doctor for months.

“You can’t get in to get an appointment,” said Brittany Wallace, “No one ever called and then we get a letter in the mail a couple of weeks after that stating that patients’ information was [exposed] or that their system was hacked.”

And Wallace says the hack came at scary time.

“One of his important medications that he didn’t have any refills on was about to run out,” he said.

FHA tells FOX 4 that they’ve lost staff as a result of the hack and only just got their phones back online.

In all, they estimate that they’re operating at about 50 percent right now.

And in order to accommodate families, like the Wallaces, FHA is now taking walk-in appointments.

That family says that’s something they’ll be taking advantage of, but they’re also encouraging other patients to share their concerns.

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease you just have to keep calling and like you said, walk-in,” said Wallace.

Rauchenberger also tells FOX 4 that they’re hoping to be back up and fully running by late August or early September. In the meantime, if you have questions about the hack they have set up a call center. You…

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