At a glance.
- US warns of heightened risk of Iranian cyberattacks.
- Michigan hospital network says data belonging to 740,000 was stolen by ransomware gang.
- Oxford City Council discloses data breach.
US warns of heightened risk of Iranian cyberattacks.
The US Department of Homeland Security has warned of a heightened risk of Iranian cyberattacks following American military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, Infosecurity Magazine reports. The DHS said in a National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin issued yesterday, "Low-level cyber-attacks against US networks by pro-Iranian hacktivists are likely, and cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against US networks." The advisory added, "Both hacktivists and Iranian government-affiliated actors routinely target poorly secured US networks and Internet-connected devices for disruptive cyber attacks."
John Hultquist, Chief Analyst at Google Threat Intelligence Group, noted, "Iran has had mixed results with disruptive cyber-attacks and they frequently fabricate and exaggerate their effects in an effort to boost their psychological impact. We should be careful not to overestimate these incidents and inadvertently assist the actors. The impacts may still be very serious for individual enterprises, which can prepare by taking many of the same steps they would to prevent ransomware."
Michigan hospital network says data belonging to 740,000 was stolen by ransomware gang.
Michigan hospital network McLaren Health Care says information belonging to more than 740,000 people was stolen during a ransomware attack last August, the Record reports. The affected data included names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, medical data, and health insurance information. McLaren operates thirteen hospitals and various medical services across Michigan, and the attack disrupted services at the time.
The INC ransomware gang is believed to be responsible for the attack.
Oxford City Council discloses data breach.
The Oxford City Council, the local government authority for the English city of Oxford, has disclosed a data breach affecting personal information across the past two decades, BleepingComputer reports. The Council stated, "We have now identified that people who worked on Oxford City Council-administered elections between 2001 and 2022, including poll station workers and ballot counters, may have had some personal details accessed. The majority of these people will be current or former Council officers."
The Council detected an "unauthorised presence" within its network over the weekend of June 7th. The statement adds, "Investigations continue to identify as precisely as we can what was accessed and what, if anything, might have been taken out of our systems. There is no evidence of a mass download or extraction of data."
