At a glance.
- Canadian healthcare worker data exposed.
- No good deed goes unpunished.
Canadian healthcare worker data exposed.
Health officials in the Canadian province of British Columbia have disclosed that three professional service websites hosted by the Health Employers Association of British Columbia (HEABC) were targeted in a cyberattack. As Global News explains, the HEABC represents two hundred public health sector employers, and as a result the attack potentially exposed the personal data of hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers. According to HEABC president and CEO Michael McMillan, the attack was detected on July 13 and the exposed data include “personal email addresses, birthdates, social insurance numbers, passport information, driver’s licences, educational credentials, investigative reports and other information relating to individual dealings with the relevant programs.” He went on to say that no patient records were impacted, and officials immediately shut down the compromised server and moved the data to a more secure location. McMillan stated, “I sincerely regret that this attack happened, and I want to reassure everyone that we are working with cybersecurity and privacy experts to address the incident, safeguard against future attacks, and notify and support individuals whose personal information may have been involved.” An investigation is underway, and although it's currently unclear exactly how many individuals were affected, the HEABC is proceeding under the assumption that all of the data on the sites were compromised.The impacted programs’ public-facing websites have been shut down, but operations will continue as normal.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Crypto firm Voyager Digital collapsed last year after going bankrupt, and in an attempt to allow customers recover their lost funds, it reopened its platform for a thirty-day period earlier this summer. However, Voyager has disclosed that while customers were busy reclaiming over $491 million from the platform, hackers were busy stealing user data. Voyager’s lawyers say they’ve been notified of “numerous scams and phishing attempts” targeting customers, and the scammers used customer names, contact information, and claim amounts in their communications that indicate the platform suffered a data breach. As the Verge explains, the fraudsters are luring Voyager’s ex-customers with the carrot of bigger payouts on bogus trading platforms, and once a target hands over his or her personal information, the cybercriminals steal their funds. Law enforcement and cyber experts have been enlisted to investigate the potential breach.