The Tarrant Appraisal District (TAD) in Texas is implementing security upgrades and hiring a cybersecurity consultant after a ransomware attack leaked the personal information of nearly 300 homeowners. TAD is also facing criticism for its appraisal protest season experience but has seen less controversial estimates this year.
UnitedHealth Group has disclosed that personal information may have been compromised in a cyberattack on its Change Healthcare unit, potentially affecting a significant portion of the U.S. population. The health insurer is providing credit monitoring and identity theft protection services while it investigates the incident and identifies the individuals impacted.
UnitedHealth Group has confirmed that a cyberattack on its technology unit, Change Healthcare, has resulted in a breach of health and personal information. The company estimates that a ‘substantial proportion’ of Americans may be affected, but the exact number of individuals impacted remains unknown. UnitedHealth is actively monitoring the situation and working to identify affected individuals. The cyberattack has disrupted payments to doctors and healthcare facilities nationwide.
A new study has raised concerns about the potential risks posed by GPT-4, the latest multimodal large language model (LLM) from OpenAI. Researchers have demonstrated that GPT-4 can autonomously exploit zero-day vulnerabilities in real-world systems, provided it has access to detailed descriptions of the flaws.
The global OT (Operational Technology) Security market is experiencing robust growth, driven by the increasing prevalence of cyber threats against critical infrastructure, industrial control systems, and SCADA networks. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.97% during the forecast period (2023-2027). OT security solutions play a crucial role in safeguarding smart infrastructure from malicious actors and ensuring the resilience of industrial environments.
Microsoft, a tech giant valued at $3 trillion, has faced criticism from former White House cyber policy director Andrew Grotto over serious security lapses. Grotto blames Microsoft for the 2019 SolarWinds hack and recent breaches of Microsoft Exchange Online systems and its own systems. He also highlights Microsoft’s practice of selling network logging services as an add-on instead of enabling them as standard, as well as its insertion of ads into the Windows 11 Start menu. Grotto warns that these security lapses pose a threat to national security and businesses of all sizes. Companies should double-check their cybersecurity measures, keep software updated, and train staff on avoiding hacks.
Spring cleaning includes digital hygiene. Backing up your data with a physical drive is crucial for protecting irreplaceable memories, critical documents, and personal information from hardware failure, viruses, cyberattacks, and human errors. Choose a reliable drive with ample storage and prioritize backing up essential documents, financial records, photos, videos, work and educational materials, emails, contacts, music and media collections, software and app data, website bookmarks, game saves and profiles, and creative works.
Ransomware payments have plummeted to a record low, with only 28% of companies paying ransom in the first quarter of 2024. This decline is attributed to increased cybersecurity measures, legal pressure, and law enforcement disruptions of ransomware gangs.
