Tag Archive for: Nationwide

Lurie Children’s Hospital faces computer network outage amid nationwide cybersecurity alert

/in


Computer outage impacts Lurie Childrens Hospital

The Chicago areas largest childrens hospital is currently grappling with a computer network outage, coinciding with a nationwide alert regarding cyber attacks targeting hospitals.

CHICAGO – The Chicago area’s largest children’s hospital is currently grappling with a computer network outage, coinciding with a nationwide alert regarding cyber attacks targeting hospitals.

This is not the first time Lurie Children’s Hospital has faced data-related issues. Last year, the hospital experienced a leak of social security numbers, names, birthdays, and addresses.

Concerns arose on Wednesday morning when parents noticed online irregularities. A message on the hospital’s website indicates an ongoing network outage affecting the internet, emails, phone service, and access to MyChart, a platform crucial for patients containing important health information, the ability to schedule doctor’s visits, and details on upcoming procedures.

Sources informed FOX 32 that a memo was circulated, stating that phone, email, and online medical records were disabled as a precautionary measure.

While Lurie Children’s Hospital has not confirmed any hacking or compromise of their systems, an expert sheds light on potential scenarios.

“It could have been a ransomware attack, where you have a group of individuals who targeted an institution, shut down their system and said, ‘hey if you don’t pay me X amount, we’re not going to turn things back on.’ It could be foreign nationals, quite possibly the Chinese. I know that’s been floated recently in testimony this week before Congress. Their efforts to penetrate and be able to disable US infrastructure is becoming quite rampant,” said Ross Rice, former FBI agent.

Efforts to obtain clarification from Lurie Children’s Hospital about the situation have been made, but as of now, there has been no response.

An alert on the hospital’s website states that they are actively working to resolve the issue.

Source…

Dozens of NH restaurants affected by nationwide ransomware attack

/in


Dozens of establishments across New Hampshire have been impacted by a nationwide ransomware attack.Restaurant owners said this isn’t affecting the dining experience, but it is causing some problems with gift cards.This time of year is one of The Beach Plums’ busiest with a gift card special right before Mother’s Day.But none of the restaurant’s locations have been able to issue new gift cards for almost two weeks, due to a nationwide ransomware attack on NCR, a supplier for many restaurant point-of-sale systems.“It’s something totally out of our control; that’s what makes it so frustrating,” Robert Lee, owner of The Beach Plum Restaurant, said. “We hope to be able to issue those starting in a few days, but NCR’s been pretty uncommunicative.””The majority of our regulars are completely understanding,” Tom Boucher, CEO and owner of Great New Hampshire Restaurants, said. ”I’m more concerned about the people who want to try us for the first time and they feel like we’re not living up to our end of the deal.”Tom Boucher said all of his restaurants are also having problems with gift cards, loyalty points and payroll for his 900 employees. “I hope people have patience and understand that this is not any restaurant in New Hampshire’s issue — it’s clearly an NCR issue,” Boucher said. In a statement to News 9, NCR said it’s working to both restore applications and enhance its security. “While in-restaurant purchases and transactions continue to operate, affected customers have reduced capabilities on specific Aloha cloud-based and Counterpoint functionality that has impacted their ability to manage restaurant administrative functions. NCR is conducting concurrent efforts to establish alternative functionality for customers, fully restore impacted data and applications, and to enhance its cyber security protections,” NCR said in a statement. Restaurant owners are feeling frustrated with what seems like roadblock after roadblock. “We had two and a half years of the pandemic, we had a year of inflation and trying to find employees and here we are finally getting back to normal and bang, we get hit with this,” Boucher said. “But you know what, we persevere, we…

Source…

University of California victim of nationwide hack attack

/in


LOS ANGELES — The University of California is warning its students and staff that a ransomware group might have stolen and published their personal data and that of hundreds of other schools, government agencies and companies nationwide.

A cybersecurity attack targeted a vulnerability in Accellion, a third-party vendor that is used to securely transfer files, the university said in a statement Wednesday.

“We understand those behind this attack have published online screenshots of personal information, and we will notify members of the UC community if we believe their data was leaked in this manner,” the university said.

The hacker or hackers also have been sending mass emails threatening to publish data “in an attempt to scare people into giving them money,” the statement said.

In an update Friday, the university system said the cyberattack affected about 300 organizations, “including universities, government institutions and private companies.”

Other schools, including Stanford University’s School of Medicine and Yeshiva University in New York City, have reported that student and employee Social Security numbers and financial information were stolen and that some were posted online.

The information was obtained in December and January when hackers exploited a vulnerability in a 20-year-old Accellion file transfer service, various reports have said. However, some organizations said they only recently became aware of the breach.

The Baltimore Sun on Thursday reported that private information of staff members and students at the University of Maryland, Baltimore was posted online this week. The school said a hacking group known as Clop gained access to Accellion in December, the Sun said.

The University of Colorado and the University of Miami reported that files were accessed in January and included personal data and some health, study and research data.

The Washington State Auditor’s Office reported last month that information on nearly 1.5 million unemployment applicants had been stolen.

Accellion released a statement in March that said it had closed “all known” vulnerabilities and no new ones had been found.

Ransomware attacks on a massive scale and seeking massive…

Source…

University of California Victim of Nationwide Hack Attack – NBC Los Angeles

/in


The University of California is warning its students and staff that a ransomware group might have stolen and published their personal data and that of hundreds of other schools, government agencies and companies nationwide.

A cybersecurity attack targeted a vulnerability in Accellion, a third-party vendor that is used to securely transfer files, the university said in a statement Wednesday.

“We understand those behind this attack have published online screenshots of personal information, and we will notify members of the UC community if we believe their data was leaked in this manner,” the university said.

The hacker or hackers also have been sending threatening mass emails threatening to publish data “in an attempt to scare people into giving them money,” the statement said.

In an update Friday, the university system said the cyberattack affected about 300 organizations, “including universities, government institutions and private companies.”

Other schools, including Stanford University’s School of Medicine and Yeshiva University in New York City, have reported that student and employee Social Security numbers and financial information were stolen and that some were posted online.

The information was obtained in December and January when hackers exploited a vulnerability in a 20-year-old Accellion file transfer service, various reports have said. However, some organizations said they only recently became aware of the breach.

The Baltimore Sun on Thursday reported that private information of staff members and students at the University of Maryland, Baltimore was posted online this week. The school said a hacking group known as Clop gained access to Accellion in December, the Sun said.

The University of Colorado and the University of Miami reported that files were accessed in January and included personal data and some health, study and research data.

The Washington State Auditor’s Office reported last month that information on nearly 1.5 million unemployment applicants had been stolen.

Accellion released a statement in March that said it had closed “all known” vulnerabilities and no new ones had been found.

Ransomware attacks on a massive…

Source…