Texas Hospital Ransomware Breach

This Article describes how a Hospital in Texas was the victim of a Ransomware attack that breached the sensitive medical data (medical/personal records & in some cases Social Security numbers and birthdates) of up to 500, 000 individuals and demanded millions of dollars of ransom. Ransomware locks down devices and holds information hostage while demanding payment (ransom) in order for those effected to potentially regain their access to it. Ransomware can be very detrimental for those who are impacted it if not handled properly. The Hospital reported that this was an "email hacking incident". The incident caused them to have to shut down communication systems (email and phone systems) for many weeks after the event occurred. Some ways Individuals can protect their information and devices from being impacted by Ransomware is evaluating incoming emails, files, and software cautiously, implementing some type of Anti-Virus software, implement emergency communication systems in case of an incident, and complete routine backups on your devices (on a removable device or trusted cloud system).

Dating App Phishing Scam

This Article is based on a phishing scam that happened to Cassandra Drummond from Virginia in 2021. Phishing scams consist of a scammer pretending to be somebody else (or a company/website) in order to trick users into playing into their scams (giving up personal information, sending money, clicking fake links, etc.). In this case, Drummond believed she was talking to Andrew Logan ( a doctor) on a dating app. Logan tricked her into thinking that he was from Michigan but was spending time in Yemen and needed her to pay for a package that contained personal items and cash. The scammer told her that once the package was shipped to her house/once he returned to Michigan, she would be payed back. Logan was not actually doctor and was getting her to send money to a scam shipping website over the course of a couple of months, and in total Drummond was scammed out of around $170,000. Some ways to avoid being dragged into phishing scams are to evaluate links being sent to you very carefully (especially from people you aren't familiar with), pay attention to website URLs and formatting within these sites (things like fonts, the spelling of words, anything that looks out of the ordinary or doesn't line up-ex. like a phone number that doesn't work, or a nonexistent company address-), and implementing security software on your devices to detect and prevent scams/security breaches.