At a glance.
- Senators question Facebook about foreign access to user data.
- West Virginia schools closed after network outage.
- Highmark Health succumbs to phishing attack.
Senators question Facebook about foreign access to user data.
Reuters reports that on Monday a pair of US senators announced they penned a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding documents that reportedly reveal that Facebook developers in China and Russia had access to US user data. The documents in question were recently unsealed as part of a pending lawsuit connected to Facebook parent company Meta. In the letter, which their offices released to the public, Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Marco Rubio wrote, "It appears from these documents that Facebook has known, since at least September 2018, that hundreds of thousands of developers in countries Facebook characterized as 'high-risk,' including the People’s Republic of China (PRC), had access to significant amounts of sensitive user data.” The letter goes on to ask Zuckerberg for answers regarding issues raised in the documents, including a series of reviews of Chinese and Russian developers allegedly conducted by Meta, and details about the exact data accessed by these developers. It’s unclear whether Zuckerberg or Meta have responded.
West Virginia schools closed after network outage.
The Berkeley County School District, located in the US state of West Virginia, was forced to cancel classes yesterday after experiencing a cybersecurity incident. WV MetroNews explains that although staff were still asked to work (no rest for the weary, it seems), students received a day off so the district could investigate the cause and scope of a network outage that disrupted district phone and internet access on Friday. An announcement sent to the school community reads, “This is an active and collaborative investigation involving cybersecurity professionals…We want our students and the community to know that we place a high value on maintaining the integrity and security of the data we hold in our systems, and we are working diligently to restore operations.” Superintendent Ron Stephens added that families will be notified if it is determined that student data were compromised. School is said to have been back in session today.
Highmark Health succumbs to phishing attack.
Health IT Security reports that Highmark Health, the US’s second largest integrated healthcare delivery and financing system, has disclosed a phishing attack that impacted 300,000 individuals. According to a report filed with the Maine Attorney General’s Office, a Highmark employee account was compromised for two days after the account holder received a malicious link. Through that account, the intruder potentially accessed emails containing protected health information including names, enrollment information, prescription and treatment information, financial information, addresses, and phone numbers. Highmark has stated, “The mailbox was immediately shut down, network blocking was implemented, passwords were reset, and the enterprise will continue to enhance email security controls. Additional training and education has been provided to employees in regard to the Cyber Security Incident to make them aware and help prevent Cyber/Phishing attempts in the future.”