Security News
Brewing company Molson Coors acknowledged on Thursday that it has "Experienced a systems outage that was caused by a cybersecurity incident," according to a Form 8-K filed with the SEC. The company did not say which type of attack has caused widespread issues across its entire business - including its brewery operations, production and shipments - but given recent major attacks on other mainstream companies, security experts are speculating that it could have been a ransomware attack. "High-profile attacks are becoming all too common, as attackers have realized they are immensely more profitable when they target large organizations and disrupt their critical business operations - in this case, the brewing operations of the world's biggest, well-known beer brands," observed Edgard Capdevielle, CEO at Nozomi Networks, in an email to Threatpost.
The wave of big-name companies falling victim to disruptive malware attacks is showing no signs of slowing down with beverage conglomerate Molson Coors Beverage Company announcing on Thursday that it was recovering from an incident that severely disrupted its production operations. The company's disclosure of the incident, believed to be a ransomware infection, was contained in an 8K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that discusses an "a systems outage that was caused by a cybersecurity incident."
The Molson Coors Beverage Company has suffered a cyberattack that is causing significant disruption to business operations. Molson Coors is well-known for its iconic beer brands, including Coors Light, Miller Lite, Molson Canadian, Blue Moon, Peroni, Killian's, and Foster's.
A hospital in southwest France has seen some of its IT systems paralysed by a "Ransomware" cyberattack, its management said Tuesday, the third such incident in the last month. Hospital workers have had to revert to working with pens and paper, since digital patient records are not available.
Yahil declined to say how many users have been affected for confidentiality reasons, but Singapore Airlines reported more than 580,000 impacted customers alone, meaning the compromise could ultimately impact millions of users. "Many airlines have issued public statements confirming what types of data have been affected in relation to their passengers."
The Biden administration has named China as the most threatening nation the United States faces, on grounds that it can combine its technological and other capabilities like no other. That assessment was offered in a new Interim National Security Guidance [PDF] issued on Wednesday, in which the administration also outlines plans to seek more regulation of advanced technologies and an intention to strike back after cyberattacks.
US managed service provider CompuCom has suffered a DarkSide ransomware attack leading to service outages and customers disconnecting from the MSP's network to prevent the spread of malware. Over the weekend, CompuCom suffered an outage that prevented customers from accessing the company's customer portal to open troubleshooting tickets.
Jason Nurse, an associate professor in cybersecurity at the University of Kent, and a visiting academic at the University of Oxford, cautioned that personal photos and information shared via various online platforms used by remote workers can expose not only the employee, but also corporate networks, to threats from savvy attackers who are looking to exploit personal data. With more workers online than ever due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people have gotten so comfortable with sharing photos and other personal information online that they may not be aware of how it can be misused, Nurse said.
The cyberattack that hit Universal Health Services in September has cost the healthcare service provider a whopping $67 million in damages, according to financial statements. With UHS subsidiaries encompassing 26 acute care hospitals, 328 behavioral health inpatient facilities, and 42 outpatient facilities and ambulatory care centers in 38 states across the U.S., the impact of the cyberattack was far reaching.
Healthcare services provider Universal Health Services last week revealed that a cyberattack it fell victim to in September 2020 had an estimated financial impact of $67 million. Within one month after the incident, hospitals were able to resume normal operations, with technology applications restored at acute care and behavioral health hospitals, and re-established connections to all major systems, including electronic medical records, laboratory, and pharmacy systems.