Tag Archive for: plan

AT&T Removes HBO Max Bundle From Its Unlimited Elite Plan

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AT&T’s top-tier Unlimited phone plan no longer comes with a free subscription to HBO Max. The wireless giant has dropped the SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) service from the $85 per month Unlimited Elite plan. Perhaps the plan itself doesn’t exist anymore for new AT&T customers as well as existing customers looking to upgrade to the top-tier plan. It has been replaced with the Unlimited Premium which costs the same but doesn’t include HBO Max. Existing Unlimited Elite subscribers will continue to get access to the streaming service for no additional charge, though.

“HBO Max is a great service, but we constantly experiment with the features we offer our customers to give them the best value,” AT&T said in a statement to NextTV. The company didn’t provide additional details regarding this move. But the decision doesn’t come as a surprise as the wireless giant no longer owns HBO Max. The SVOD service was part of its WarnerMedia division that spun off and merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal closed this April and AT&T has expectedly removed HBO Max as a free add-on with its top-tier wireless plan.

Instead of HBO Max, AT&T is offering additional high-speed hotspot data with the Unlimited Premium plan. Subscribers now get 50GB of hotspot data, 10GB more than what the now-discontinued Unlimited Elite plan offered. The $85 a month plan, which comes down to $45 per line per month if you get five or more lines, gives you unlimited talk, text, and 5G internet in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Other perks include free roaming in 19 Latin American countries, 4K UHD streaming, mobile security, unlimited texting to over 200 countries, and six months of Stadia Pro subscription.

The ad-supported HBO Max is still available to Cricket Wireless customers

As said earlier, AT&T removing HBO Max from its top-tier unlimited plan is no surprise. But the company’s prepaid brand Cricket Wireless still offers an ad-supported version of the streaming service to its customers. Subscribers of its $60 per month Unlimited plan get the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned SVOD service at no additional cost.

This Cricket Wireless plan comes down to just $32 per line per month for…

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California health plan facing network disruptions after alleged Hive ransomware attack

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This week’s healthcare data breach roundup is led by the ongoing network disruptions at Partnership HealthPlan of California, allegedly caused by the Hive ransomware group. (Sarah Stierch, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Partnership HealthPlan of California (PHC) is currently experiencing computer system disruptions and working to recover its network with support from third-party forensic specialists. Multiple reports allege the Hive ransomware group is behind the attack.

Its official website notice does not explain the underlying cause, but DataBreaches.net was first to report that Hive ransomware actors have taken responsibility for the attack. The post has since been removed, but screenshots of its dark web leak site previously displayed data proofs  allegedly exfiltrated from the PHC network before ransomware was deployed.

The proofs contained approximately 850,000 unique records, containing 400GB of data. Hive claimed to have deployed the ransomware on March 19. Again, the official website makes no such statement, nor did the ransomware group reveal any alleged patient data on the site before it was taken down.

The notice shows the health plan is currently investigating the incident and working to “safely restore full functionality to affected systems, and determine whether any information may have been potentially accessible as a result of the situation.”

PHC will notify relevant parties if any patient information was potentially accessed during the incident. The health plan has also established a number of helplines for specific medical needs or questions.

It appears the network disruption has disabled PHC’s ability to receive or process Treatment Authorization Requests, the form required to gain pre-approved funding for treatment, including the Medi-Cal approved assistive technology. Providers are being asked to to provide the necessary treatment for the next two weeks, and the TARs will be retroactively completed.

PHC is the second healthcare entity to report ongoing network outages in the last week, bringing the total number of healthcare provider disruptions to four this year, so far.

Portions of the Oklahoma City Indian…

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Ransomware Attacks: Have Your Team And Plan In Place Now

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Ransomware attacks have risen drastically in the past several years, and their costs — both in terms of damage to businesses and actual ransoms paid — are poised to continue to escalate. This form of cyberattack poses real risks to any organization that relies on computer systems for its essential operations. For many organizations, the loss of the use of such systems for days or even hours can be devastating. So being prepared in advance to handle such attacks is a prudent part of risk management.

Ransomware is malicious computer software used to render data unusable. In its most common form, ransomware encrypts files on a victim’s computer or computer systems. After a cybercriminal has infected a victim’s computer files, they will contact the victim and demand a ransom payment. In return for payment, the perpetrator promises to provide the victim a digital “key,” allowing them to decrypt their files, rendering them usable again. In some cases, the perpetrator may also make their own copy of the affected files and threaten to sell them or release them publicly unless their ransom demand is met.

This extortionate practice is one of the most profitable business models in cybercrime today, with a cumulative price tag in the billions of dollars. According to the FBI, there was a 225% increase in losses due to ransomware attacks from 2019 to 2020. Estimated ransomware attacks have continued to rise, with more than 300 million estimated global attacks in the first half of 2021. Some attacks make headline news, such as the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack that caused fuel shortages along the East Coast in 2021, or the widely reported attacks on hospitals, which can place lives at risk. But many attacks target smaller organizations and may never be reported in the press. All in all, no organization that relies on computer systems to conduct its essential operations can afford to be complacent about the risk of ransomware attacks.

If your organization is targeted with a ransomware attack, being prepared to respond quickly is critical. It is prudent to plan your first steps in advance so as to make best use of time to mitigate the damage and facilitate a quick recovery.

Your first…

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Hochul details cybersecurity plan as Russia invades Ukraine

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ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul  announced plans Tuesday for a new “Joint Security Operations Center” that she said will strengthen local and state governments from the increasing threat of cyber attacks.

The roll out of the plan was presented on the backdrop of an immediate cybersecurity threat that U.S. officials have warned about due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

“That is not sustainable in light of the threats that we are seeing,” Hochul said in Brooklyn Tuesday afternoon. “We can’t expect cities and counties to go at it alone. They don’t have the resources; they don’t have the technological know how.”

The team, Hochul said, is expected to bring together groups that previously did not communicate directly with each other to help the state enhance its cybersecurity efforts. She called it a “first in the nation” hub for data sharing and cyber coordination and urged other states to follow suit.

Hochul hopes to spend $62 million in security-related services, which could assist both the state and local governments with endpoint detection and response, intrusion detection, vulnerability scanning and data backup, according to budget documents. The governor’s briefing book states $44 million would be used toward cybersecurity for similar causes.

There were 85 reported “cyber events” in local government agencies between 2020 and 2021, according to the governor’s office. 

The governor’s plans add onto a host of existing cybersecurity measures the state already funds. Hochul did not explain the preexisting programs in her news conference.The programs are intended to work together to provide a more centralized view of the issues, according to the governor’s office. 

Since 2017, New York has had a “Cyber Incident Response Team,” which provides services for local governments, non-executive branch state agencies and public authorities.

The program, under the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, offers both proactive and reactive services. It is budgeted for $4.5 million in Hochul’s proposed budget and could grow by the equivalent of…

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