Category Archives: New Jersey

New Jersey hospital chain pays attackers to thwart ransomware incident

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New Jersey’s largest hospital system said last week it paid an extortion fee to hackers who had disrupted medical facilities with a ransomware attack. Hackensack Meridian Health, based in Edison, New Jersey, said Dec. 13 it was working to restore its computer systems following a Dec. 2 ransomware attack that forced administrators to cancel roughly 100 elective medical procedures. The nonprofit, which operates 17 clinics and hospitals, cautioned that no patients were harmed as a result of the attack. It did not say how much it paid ransomware attackers to unlock medical systems. “We believe it’s our obligation to protect our communities’ access to health care,” the nonprofit said in a statement. Ransomware attacks typically begin with an email containing a malicious link or attached document that infects victims’ computers. Once inside, scammers seek to infiltrate more sensitive areas of the network, encrypting data or disabling services along the way. […]

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Eigen nabs $37M to help banks and others parse huge documents using natural language and ‘small data’

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One of the bigger trends in enterprise software has been the emergence of startups building tools to make the benefits of artificial intelligence technology more accessible to non-tech companies. Today, one that has built a platform to apply power of machine learning and natural language processing to massive documents of unstructured data has closed a […] Continue reading Eigen nabs $37M to help banks and others parse huge documents using natural language and ‘small data’→

Ukrainian national accused of spreading millions of malicious ads by posing as a CEO

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Another indictment unveiled by the U.S. Department of Justice this week provides more detail on how American authorities are trying to bring accused international advertising scammers to justice stateside. Prosecutors have charged Oleskii Ivanov, a 31-year-old Ukrainian, with computer fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of an alleged scheme to launch advertising campaigns containing malicious software between 2013 and 2018. Ivanov and his unnamed co-conspirators caused unsuspecting web users to view more than 100 million of these advertisements, including in banners and other prominent website locations, according to the indictment filed by Craig Carpenito, U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey. The indictment does not specify how much money members of the “malvertising” conspiracy made, though it says, “Ivanov and his co-conspirators attempted to cause millions of dollars of losses to victim internet users.” Security researchers have taken an increasing interest lately in the blurred line between […]

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The Vintage Computer Festival East Is Happening This Weekend

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This weekend is the premier vintage computer meetup on the East Coast. It’s VCF East, and it’s all going down this weekend, Friday to Sunday afternoon, in Wall, New Jersey.

2019 is a fantastic year for computer history, being the 50th anniversary of Unix, and the 40th anniversary of Atari. …read more

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First WOPR Summit Finds the Winning Move

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At the climax of 1983’s “WarGames”, the War Operation Plan Response (WOPR) computer famously opines “The only winning move is not to play” when presented with a barrage of no-win scenarios depicting global thermonuclear war. While the stakes aren’t quite as high when it comes to putting on a …read more

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DHS official: States will probably know first if malicious cyber-activity hits primaries

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The Department of Homeland Security is on standby to alert state officials about any malicious cyber-activity during Tuesday’s primary elections, but the states themselves will likely know first if something is amiss, Matthew Masterson, a senior cybersecurity adviser at DHS, told CyberScoop. With voters going to the polls in eight states, Tuesday’s primaries are a chance for DHS to test the communication protocols it has sought to ingrain in election personnel across the country. State officials, who generally have the best views of their networks, will flag potentially malicious activity for DHS, which can in turn alert other states, according to Masterson. “If we see or have information to suggest something is going on, we have the ability to immediately share it with the states,” he said in an interview. Ahead of the midterm elections, DHS has looked to “ramp up” its cyberthreat reports to state officials to get them information that […]

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Election security bill still needs work in some areas, state officials tell Senate sponsors

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Several secretaries of state are telling the main backers of a Senate election security bill that the legislation might need tweaks to how it addresses information sharing, state-federal communication channels, funding mechanisms and post-election audits, among other things. The secretaries, who are the top election officials in their states, met with bill sponsors James Lankford, R-Okla., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., in person and via phone Monday to discuss the Secure Elections Act. The legislation is intended to bolster election security by smoothing out coordination between the state and federal levels and providing states financial support for operations and equipment upgrades. State secretaries from Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Colorado and New Mexico participated in the meeting. A spokesperson for Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson said that the secretary suggested quicker intelligence reporting to states. Among the ways the Department of Homeland Security is currently coordinating with states is by sponsoring security clearances for state election officials to review information about […]

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Time is running out to approve state officials to receive cybersecurity intel ahead of elections

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With just about a month left before the polls open in New Jersey and Virginia for gubernatorial elections, the Department of Homeland Security is racing to vet state officials who have applied for the ability to receive classified briefings and other information related to potential cyber-intrusions into election systems, people familiar with the matter tell CyberScoop. In August, the DHS began reaching out to chief election officials in every state to begin the process of obtaining clearances. While the nominees for these clearances are usually the secretary of state or similar high-ranking office-holders, some supporting staff have also sought clearances. The processing for each of these applications varies by person and as a result, there’s no average wait time. Over the last several months, however, DHS has been able to issue “interim” clearances when necessary within 30 days of an application, officials told CyberScoop. Final clearance approvals are taking much longer, the officials said. People […]

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