UCSF Pays over a Million Dollars in Ransom to Hackers

   “We therefore made the difficult decision to pay some portion of the ransom, approximately $1.14 million…”   UCSF Under Attack On June 3rd, 2020, The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) announced a portion of their school faced a data breach. The portion of UCSF affected is the UCSF School of Medicine.  Reports indicate that the ransomware used to attack the school traces back to Netwalker Ransomware. After the discovery of the security incident and data encryption, UCSF decided to pay over one million dollars in ransom, for a decryption key.  Now, let’s take a look at the incident in greater detail, to understand the attack in its entirety. … Read More

Continue Reading
covid-19

Why are Companies so Vulnerable During COVID-19?

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, cyber attacks appear to sky rocket. Why is that? Let’s get to the bottom of this issue…   Cyber Attacks on the Rise during COVID-19 Welcome back everyone to yet another week of quarantine. CPG is based in Pennsylvania, and we are beginning to see some progress in reopening our state. Although, I would say that the word progress will be used loosely.  Many counties and areas in our state are still on total lock down. With large cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, it makes it difficult to move towards a solution for opening. Many businesses, small and large, face many trials and challenges as… Read More

Continue Reading

“Fun” Facebook Questionnaire Posts are Putting Users in Danger

  What was the make and model of your first car? How many pets did you have growing up?   It’s all fun and games until your Facebook account is hacked… Due to the amount of people unemployed and/or simply working from home due to COVID-19, social media activity is at an all time high. From live streams on Instagram to millions of what fictional character am I? quiz results, people are posting now more than ever.  Continuing, while all of the posts on the internet may seem menial and an easy way to pass the time, many people do not understand the danger a simple post can be. This… Read More

Continue Reading
zoom

Zoom Security Issues

  What once seemed like a great vessel for video conferencing, is now a huge security threat to online schooling, virtual business meetings and everyday conversations alike.      COVID-19 Communication Issues Ever since the breakout and now world wide infection of COVID-19, universities, businesses and cities are all shutting down. In hopes to contain the spread of the virus, governments across the world are implementing stay home and no travel orders.  This situation has led to issues with communications in regards to meetings, teaching students and all around in person communication. So, in an effort to continue face to face conversation, many businesses and schools turned to online video… Read More

Continue Reading
covid-19

Cyber Attack of the Week 05 – Hacking Group Plans to Cut Down on Attacks

  It appears that malicious hackers may in fact contain some amount of empathy for the world right now. Of course, in their own way and under their own circumstances.     Today for our cyber attack of the week article, we are breaking down something a little different. To begin, a hacking group named The Maze Team, decided to stop any of their malware attacks against healthcare facilities during the COVID-19 outbreak.    Who is The Maze Team?  Just to give you a little background, Maze is responsible for many ransomware based attacks against healthcare facilities. Not only that, but this group attacks a large assortment of businesses and… Read More

Continue Reading