Security News
The United States and Australia have signed a first-ever bilateral agreement that allows the U.S. Cyber Command and the Information Warfare Division of the Australian Defense Force to jointly develop and share a virtual cyber training platform. The two countries' departments of defense will achieve this by incorporating IWD's feedback into USCYBERCOM's simulated training domain known as the Persistent Cyber Training Environment.
The attack targeted organizations associated with a public-private global health partnership, called Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which is aiming to leverage such cold-chain companies in order to safely transport the COVID-19 vaccine to underdeveloped regions. "However, the established role that Haier Biomedical currently plays in vaccine transport, and their likely role in COVID-19 vaccine distribution, increases the probability the intended targets may engage with the inbound emails without questioning the sender's authenticity."
Intellectual property theft will join ransomware, cloud-stored patient data theft and advanced phishing efforts as the main hallmarks of medical-related healthcare cyberattacks for the new year. These cyberattacks will have ramifications for geopolitics, with the "Attribution of attacks entailing serious consequences or aimed at the latest medical developments is sure to be cited as an argument in diplomatic disputes."
Brazilian airplane maker Embraer on Monday disclosed a cyberattack that, according to some reports, involved ransomware. Embraer manufactures commercial, executive, military, and agricultural aircraft, and its website says the company is the third largest commercial jets maker, with more than 8,000 airplanes delivered to date.
More than a month after a cyberattack hit the University of Vermont health network, the organization is still working to recover its systems. The UVM health network is a six-hospital, home-health and hospice system, which encompasses more than 1,000 physicians, 2,000 nurses and other clinicians in Vermont and northern New York.
Manchester United has been unable to fully restore its computer systems a week after being targeted in a cyberattack. "Following the recent cyberattack on the club, our IT team and external experts secured our networks and have conducted forensic investigations," United said in a statement.
Chicago-based transportation technology firm Rand McNally is working on restoring network functionality following a cyberattack that hit its systems earlier this week. In a separate notification sent to customers on Tuesday, Rand McNally said that no indication of customer data being affected in the cyberattack.
Network device manufacturer Belden was hit with a cyberattack that allowed threat actors to steal files containing information about employees and business partners. In a 'Data Incident' disclosure, Belden states that they recently suffered a cyberattack that allowed hackers to steal company data.
The Manchester United football club in the U.K. has confirmed that the team fell victim to a cyberattack on its systems. "The club has extensive protocols and procedures in place for such an event and had rehearsed for this risk. Our cyber-defenses identified the attack and shut down affected systems to contain the damage and protect data."
The attack affected the company's phone systems, email, inventory management and order fulfilment, according to reports on Twitter. "Human-operated ransomware attacks begin with trojans or other exploits against unsophisticated vectors," Chloé Messdaghi, vice president of strategy at Point3 Security, said via email.