Tag Archive for: judge

Dallas County computer systems targeted in cyber attack Oct. 19, county judge says

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A cyber attack recognized by Dallas County officials Oct. 19 may have compromised the personal information of employees and residents, according to a statement from County Judge .

Jenkins said in the statement, released Monday, that the county is working with police and external cybersecurity experts to determine the extent of the information compromised in the attack. Dallas County officials took immediate steps when the attack was identified on Oct. 19 to contain it.

Jenkins did not say how extensive the attack was, who may have been impacted or what information was targeted. The county has put “stringent security protocols” in place to “safeguard our systems and data,” he said in the statement.

“As the investigation is still ongoing, we do not want to make premature assumptions about the extent of impact or other details, which may evolve as the forensic investigation advances,” Jenkins said. “We value the trust and credibility we have established with our residents and partners and strive to maintain accuracy in the information we share.”

The city of Dallas was hit with a ransomware attack in May that disabled systems for months and exposed information related to more than 30,000 people. Dallas officials identified the attackers as ransomware group “Royal.”

In June, Fort Worth was targeted by a cyber attack that resulted in a leak of roughly 180 gigabytes of city work orders and police reports. SeigedSec, a self-described hacker group of “gay furries,” was identified by the city as the perpetrators of the attack. It said on social media around the time of the attack that it was targeting Texas governments because of the state’s policy on gender affirming care.

The city said in June it was confident it had identified and plugged the hole that allowed the hackers access to the city’s systems. Unlike the attack in Dallas, the hack on Fort Worth’s systems was not ransomware.

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Kansas courts to operate on paper for at least 2 weeks, judge says ransomware attack may be to blame

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Kansas Judge Phil Journey confirms there has been an “unauthorized incursion” into the brand-new statewide computer system and it will be down for at least two weeks, affecting all Kansas state courts …

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Judge Says Insurer Must Cover More Than $100K in Ransomware Payment – USA Herald

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This is the case of Yoshida Foods International LLC v. Federal Insurance Co., in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.

Yoshida is a teriyaki sauce and soda company known for its line of Asian marinades and cooking sauces, which suffered a ransomware attack in 2021.

Yoshida Foods International LLC purchased insurance from Federal Insurance Co. that included computer fraud coverage under the crime coverage part of its policy.

In March 2021, an unknown hacker gained illegal access to Yoshida’s computer system and used malware to encrypt data in its storage devices, rendering the system unusable. 

The anonymous hacker demanded a ransom payment in cryptocurrency in exchange for each decrypting program.

President of Yoshida Foods, Junki Yoshida, used his personal cryptocurrency funds to pay the ransomware of $107,074.20 for the four decryption keys needed, for which the company reimbursed him.

The company then submitted a claim to Federal, but coverage was denied. The insurer’s position was that the company did not sustain a “direct loss” from computer fraud, with its only loss occurring when it reimbursed the company president, who was not personally insured under the policy.

In October 2021 Yoshida filed suit accusing its insurer of bad faith and seeking coverage for its losses. After a litigious court battle, the court ruled in favor of Yoshida finding that the company will be able to seek insurance compensation for money its founder paid from his personal cryptocurrency funds to acquire decryption keys from the anonymous hacker in order to restore his company’s data.

This week, U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez found that the ransomware payment made by Junki Yoshida from his own personal BitCoin funds was an expense that was the result of a direct loss to his company, caused by the hacker, and should be covered by Federal Insurance Co.

Judge Hernandez rebuffed the insurer’s argument that since Junki Yoshida paid the hackers personally and was technically an employee, a contractual exemption for employee-approved transfers applied.

Judge Hernandez wrote in his ruling that “Under the defendant’s reading, if someone held a gun to an employee’s…

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OPM hack $63M settlement approved by federal judge

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Written by

John Hewitt Jones
Oct 17, 2022 | FEDSCOOP

A federal judge has given final approval for a proposed $63 million settlement to bring to an end a class action lawsuit brought over the Office of Personnel Management data breaches in 2015.

U.S. district judge Amy Berman Jackson in a hearing on Oct. 14 said the agreed-upon figure was fair and gave approval for the settlement to proceed.

Judge Jackson in June gave preliminary approval for the settlement to proceed, and at the time described the terms as “fair, reasonable, and adequate, and in the best interest of named plaintiffs and class members.”

Most class action lawsuits involve a fairness hearing, during which the judge will consider whether the proposed settlement figure is “fair, reasonable and adequate”, and hear any objections. 

Following the final fairness hearing, prospective participants will still have until Dec. 23 to join the lawsuit, after which the validity of each claim will be assessed. Assuming there are no appeals, payouts to claimants are expected to take place in the first or second quarter of next year.

Under terms of the settlement, each claimant is entitled to a minimum of $700 per claim, up to a maximum of $10,000 per claim. 

Speaking with FedScoop, attorney for the plaintiffs Jordan Elias said: “It was a challenging case with a lot of pitfalls, so we were pleased we were able to negotiate the case outcome without major objections.”

Elias added that the negotiations took over two years and had been complicated by factors including the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2015, OPM announced it was hit with a series of intrusions understood to be linked to two Chinese government-sponsored groups, which resulted in the compromise of personal information of around 22 million individuals.

A subsequent report by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform found that the earliest known data breach at the agency came in November 2013 but was not detected for years until a private cybersecurity firm was brought in to run forensics.

Before that, malware was found to be lurking on the…

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