On January 27 and 28, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced two successful operations to disrupt two different strains of malware, Netwalker ransomware and a banking Trojan known as Emotet, which have affected victims around the globe and caused millions of dollars in damage in recent years. The law enforcement actions against Netwalker and […]
New Law Requires HHS to Consider Recognized Security Practices as Mitigating Factor When Determining Penalties
On January 5, 2021, the president signed into law H.R. 7898, an Act that amends the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to consider specific recognized security practices of covered entities and business associates when making certain determinations regarding fines, penalties, […]
Financial Regulatory Agencies Announce Proposed Rule Requiring Notice of Computer Security Incidents
On December 18, 2020, federal financial regulatory agencies jointly announced a proposed rule that would impose new and expanded reporting requirements on supervised banking organizations that experience a “computer-security incident,” requiring notice within 36 hours of any computer-security incident that rises to the level of a “notification incident.” In a significant departure from current reporting […]
SolarWinds Hack: Unparalleled Supply Chain Attack Results in Potential Compromise of Private and Public Sector Organizations
On Sunday, December 13, 2020, SolarWinds announced that it had learned of a “highly sophisticated, manual supply chain attack” by a nation state affecting its Orion Platform, which is used by a wide variety of public and private sector organizations for IT infrastructure monitoring and management. In this attack, adversaries were able to compromise the […]
DOJ Announces Indictment of Russian Hackers for Destructive Cyber-Attacks, Including Deployment of NotPetya and Olympic Destroyer Malware
On October 19, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that six Russian GRU officers had been charged in connection with a series of destructive cyber-attacks that affected victims around the globe and caused billions of dollars of damage. The Russian hackers are alleged to be a part of the group known as Sandworm, which […]