Cyber Security Today – Freepik hack, Weather Channel app privacy lawsuit settled, flaw in Google Drive and a university pays a ransom

By Howard Solomon for IT World Canada
Monday, August 24, 2020

• 1.8k
• 8
• 8
• 8
• 4
• More
• 8
• 8

The University of Utah has been forced to pay just over $457,000 to criminals behind a ransomware attack. The university said that on July 19th servers in the College of Social and Behavioral Science were encrypted, denying students and staff access to their data. The college’s servers were quickly isolated from the rest of the university, and 10 days later everyone in the institution was told to change their university access passwords. However, working with its insurance provider the university decided to pay the crooks. Insurance paid only a part of the ransom. The university says the incident has made it re-think security and move to a more centralized IT management. That includes making students, faculty and administrators use two-factor authentication with their logins.

Deciding to pay a ransom isn’t easy. Still, the head of a web security company says there are risks. Ilia Kolochenko, CEO of ImmuniWeb, notes hackers may not honour their promises to release copied or encrypted data. And partners of the hackers may also have their hands on copied data and will use it.

That’s it for Cyber Security Today. Links to details about these stories can be found in the text version of each podcast at ITWorldCanada.com. That’s where you’ll also find my news stories aimed at businesses and cybersecurity professionals. Cyber Security Today can be heard on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or add us to your Flash Briefing on your smart speaker. Read Full Article