Security News

China Says Washington Hack Claims 'Fabricated', Condemns US Allies
2021-07-20 12:58

China on Tuesday said the US had "Fabricated" allegations it carried out a massive Microsoft hack, countering that Washington was the "World champion" of cyber attacks while raging at American allies for signing up to a rare joint statement of condemnation. The United States on Monday accused Beijing of carrying out the March cyber attack on Microsoft Exchange, a top email server for corporations around the world, and charged four Chinese nationals over the "Malicious" hack.

Ransomware attack hits Washington, D.C. police department
2021-04-28 17:24

Another government agency has found itself the victim of a ransomware attack, and this time it's Washington, D.C.'s own police department. Serving the nation's capital, the Metropolitan Police Department has acknowledged unauthorized access on its server, an attack for which the Babuk Locker gang has claimed responsibility, according to BleepingComputer and other sites.

Babuk Ransomware Gang Targets Washington D.C. Police
2021-04-27 15:35

The Babuk gang of threat actors claims to have stolen more than 250 gigabytes of data from the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department on Monday, including police reports, internal memos, and arrested people's mug shots and personal details. According to Vice., the attackers published the claim and the data on the official Babuk site.

Washington DC police force confirms data breach after ransomware upstart Babuk posts trophies to Tor blog
2021-04-27 12:25

Ransomware criminals have posted trophy pictures on their Tor blog after attacking the police force for US capital Washington DC. The Metropolitan Police Department said it was "Aware of unauthorised access on our server" and had engaged the FBI to investigate, according to BleepingComputer. Babuk, a relatively new ransomware gang, claimed credit for the attack and claimed to have stolen 250GB of files from the force.

Washington Senate OKs Measure Creating State Office of Cybersecurity
2021-02-25 01:49

In response to a security breach that exposed personal information from around 1.6 million unemployment claims filed last year, the Washington Senate has unanimously passed a measure that creates a state Office of Cybersecurity. The measure, passed by the chamber on Wednesday, creates the new office within the Office of the Chief Information Officer.

Over 1 Million Impacted by Data Breach at Washington State Auditor
2021-02-02 13:23

The Office of the Washington State Auditor has disclosed a cybersecurity incident in which the personal information of more than 1 million individuals might have been stolen. In its breach notification this week, SAO revealed that some of the files that were compromised in the incident contained "Personal information of Washington state residents who filed unemployment insurance claims in 2020.".

Data Breach Exposes 1.6 Million Jobless Claims Filed in the Washington State
2021-02-02 02:28

The Office of the Washington State Auditor on Monday said it's investigating a security incident that resulted in the compromise of personal information of more than 1.6 million people who filed for unemployment claims in the state in 2020. The SAO blamed the breach on a software vulnerability in Accellion's File Transfer Appliance service, which allows organizations to share sensitive documents with users outside their organization securely.

Data breach exposes 1.6 million Washington unemployment claims
2021-02-01 21:15

Washington's State Auditor office has suffered a data breach that exposed the personal information in 1.6 million employment claims. The Office of the Washington State Auditor states that they suffered a data breach after a threat actor exploited a vulnerability in a secure file transfer service from Accellion.

Officials: Washington Being Targeted by Phishing Campaign
2020-09-25 12:26

Washington state is among those being targeted by a "Large-scale, highly sophisticated" nationwide phishing campaign, the office of Gov. Jay Inslee said Thursday. At a press conference Thursday, Inslee said that the state is taking proactive measures to protect state systems, but he said that no ransomware activity has occurred among the agencies targeted, and no state services have been impacted.

Washington state Senate passes bill to rein in facial recognition
2020-02-21 10:12

On Wednesday, the state senate passed a bill - Senate Bill 6280 - that would prohibit state and local government agencies from using facial recognition in most instances, including. The latest version of the bill specifies that at least 90 days before government agencies adopt a new facial recognition technology, they must inform the public about the technology in question - in detail.