Tag Archive for: French

DVIDS – News – U.S. Army cyber leaders help build partnership, interoperability with French Army during Fort Gordon visit

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FORT GORDON, Ga. — U.S. and French Army leaders strengthened the partnership and mutual security cooperation between the two nations during a visit by Gen. Pierre Schill, Chief of the French Army, with U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence (CCOE) and U.S. Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER) leaders here, Aug. 24, 2022.

The event was part of a five-day visit by Schill with the U.S. Army at the invitation of U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville, to further bilateral cooperation and interoperability between the two armies and familiarize French leadership with U.S. efforts such as modernization programs, multi-domain operations, organizations and capabilities, and human resources initiatives.

Schill’s visit to Fort Gordon helped to establish and build French relationships, shared objectives and future interoperability with ARCYBER and the CCOE. U.S. leaders provided overviews of their organizations’ missions and structures; of the training and development of Soldiers in “immaterial domain” specialties such as cyber and information operations, and of how they are preparing for future challenges and managing and seeking solutions to capability gaps.

The event is an extension of America’s association with its oldest ally and NATO partner and the longstanding U.S.-French collaboration in cyberspace.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III highlighted the value of that partnership in defeating malicious adversaries in cyberspace during a meeting with French leaders last year.

“Our countries have a strong shared interest in protecting our critical infrastructure and that of our allies, including cyber infrastructure, and that’s a foundation for our future cooperation in the area of technological infrastructure more broadly,” Austin said.

“We are so grateful General Schill included a visit to U.S. Army Cyber Command and the Cyber Center of Excellence in his busy itinerary,” said Lt. Gen. Maria Barrett, ARCYBER commanding general. “We know the cyber domain and activities in the information dimension are ever-changing. Understanding how each of our armies are…

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Ottawa French school board pays ransom to hackers

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The board discovered on Oct. 18 that “unknown actors” had gained access to the board’s computer network and took files stored on the server in the main office.

Author of the article:

Jacquie Miller

Publishing date:

Nov 30, 2021  •  11 hours ago  •  2 minute read  •  6 Comments

This file photo illustration picture taken on June 25, 2019 shows a close-up view of a computer keyboard.
This file photo illustration picture taken on June 25, 2019 shows a close-up view of a computer keyboard. Photo by Fred Tanneau /AFP via Getty Images

Ottawa’s French public school board says it has paid a ransom to the hackers who breached its computer system and stole files that included personal information on employees, parents and students.

The Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario has employed cyber security experts to investigate the data breach, the board said in a news release Tuesday.

The board discovered on Oct. 18 that “unknown actors” had gained access to the board’s computer network and took files stored on the server in the main office, said the release.

The board made a payment to the cyber thieves and was told the data had been deleted.

About 75 gigabytes of data was stolen, most of it internal employment and administration issues, said the board. However, the data also included social insurance numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers and dates of birth.

Anyone employed by the board after 2000 may have had personal information stored on the server from which the files were stolen, said the release.

The board said it will write to all employees whose personal data may have been compromised within the week and also provide them a free credit monitoring service for two years.

A “smaller number” of current and former students and parents may also have been affected, and will be contacted, said the release.

The release apologized for the incident, saying administrators are taking steps to improve the security of their computer network.

The incident has been reported to police and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.

The release from the board did not say how much ransom money was paid to the cyber hackers.

The board paid…

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OTTAWA FRENCH SCHOOL BOARD: Ransom paid to hackers who stole data on employees, parents and students

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Ottawa’s French public school board says it has paid a ransom to the hackers who breached its computer system and stole files that included personal information on employees, parents and students.

The Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario has employed cyber security experts to investigate the data breach, the board said in a news release Tuesday.

The board discovered on Oct. 18 that “unknown actors” had gained access to the board’s computer network and took files stored on the server in the main office, said the release.

The board made a payment to the cyber thieves and was told the data had been deleted.

About 75 gigabytes of data was stolen, most of it internal employment and administration issues, said the board. However, the data also included social insurance numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers and dates of birth.

Anyone employed by the board after 2000 may have had personal information stored on the server from which the files were stolen, said the release.

The board said it will write to all employees whose personal data may have been compromised within the week and also provide them a free credit monitoring service for two years.

A “smaller number” of current and former students and parents may also have been affected, and will be contacted, said the release.

The release apologized for the incident, saying administrators are taking steps to improve the security of their computer network.

The incident has been reported to police and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.

The release from the board did not say how much ransom money was paid to the cyber hackers.

The board paid the ransom because it was the best chance to secure the data, according to an information webpage the board has set up about the cyber hack. The board does not have proof the hackers destroyed the files after receiving the money, but there is no reason to suspect they did not, said the post.

The board began the “network containment” a few hours after the breach was detected on Oct. 18 and since then has spent time trying to determine what data was taken and analyzing the situation, according…

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Home addresses, social security numbers & sensitive medical data on 500,000 French patients leaked online after hack – reports — RT World News

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Sensitive medical records on nearly 500,000 patients in France have been stolen in a major cyber attack on dozens of healthcare labs, landing online after an alleged dispute between the hackers, according to media reports.

A file containing names and contact details on 491,840 people has made the rounds online since at least earlier this month, according to French cybersecurity journalist Damien Bancal, who runs the Zataz blog. The data includes home addresses, phone numbers, emails, social security numbers and other sensitive medical information pertaining to medications, pregnancy and diseases such as HIV.

While Bancal first noted the hack in a February 14 blog post, AFP and the French daily Liberation followed up more recently, with the latter finding the data was likely stolen from roughly 30 medical labs located around northwestern France.

“We can find this file in seven different places on the internet,” Bancal told AFP on Tuesday, adding that although hackers initially negotiated for the data through a Telegram chat, the stolen material was later released for free after a dispute among the blackhatters.  

Data on 500,000 people is already huge and nothing prevents me from thinking that the hackers still have a lot more.



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Though AFP’s requests for comment to French authorities have so far gone unanswered, Bancal observed that the country’s CERT cyber crime agency appears to have acknowledged the breach earlier this month. The outfit posted a notice to the website of the French Ministry of Health warning that login credentials for up to 50,000 “hospital center agents” had been swiped and put up for sale on February 4, adding that while “it is difficult to precisely describe the origin of this leak,” it could allow hackers to access healthcare networks. 

Bancal also claims to have personally contacted one of the people still attempting to sell the purloined records through the online blackmarket. He said the person asked for “at least…

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