The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) recently issued a joint alert with the Department of Homeland Security/Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) that “Mamba ransomware has been deployed against local governments, public transportation agencies, legal services, technology services, industrial, commercial, manufacturing, and construction businesses.” According to the Alert, the hacking group behind the Mamba ransomware attacks is weaponizing an open source tool used for disc encryption—DiskCryptor—to encrypt entire operating systems of victims. Once the operating…

Applus Technologies, Inc., a vendor of multiple state Departments of Motor Vehicles that assists states with vehicle inspections, recently announced that its systems have been affected by malware, disrupting motor vehicle inspections in Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Utah. As a result of the outage, vehicle inspections have not been able to be completed since March 30, 2021. This is obviously very inconvenient for those individuals whose inspection stickers have or…

The California Attorney General recently approved modified regulations under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). One part of the modified regulations bans “dark patterns” on a website. What are dark patterns? Public comments to the proposed regulations describe dark patterns as deliberate attempts to subvert or impair a consumer’s choice to opt-out on a website. Dark patterns could be used on a website to confuse or distract a consumer into granting knowing consent instead of…

On April 6, 2021, DocuSign issued an Alert notifying users of a new malicious hacking tool that is mimicking DocuSign to drop malware into victims’ systems. According to the Alert, the document building tool, dubbed “EtterSilent,” “creates Microsoft Office documents containing malicious macros or attempts to exploit a known Microsoft Office vulnerability (CVE-2017-8570) to download malware onto the victim’s computer. This activity is from malicious third-party sources and is not coming from the DocuSign platform.”…

United Parcel Service (UPS) announced this week that it will test electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) for package delivery. UPS purchased 10 eVTOL from Beta Technologies (Beta), which it plans to test for use in its Express Air Delivery network. These eVTOLs are set to be delivered to UPS in 2024, pending certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Beta Technologies also plans to provide landing pads and rechargeable batteries. With just a…

How many times can we say that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will NOT email or telephone you? We will say it again. If you receive a telephone call, email or text from someone saying they are from the IRS, it is A SCAM. It’s that simple. If you don’t believe me, check out the IRS website which will this fact. Imposters, fraudsters, and scammers have been launching scams scaring people into believing that they…

The FBI recently issued a Flash Alert warning higher education institutions, K-12 schools, and seminaries about increasing numbers of ransomware attacks affecting the education industry. According to the warning, “Since March 2020, the FBI has become aware of PYSA ransomware attacks against US and foreign government entities, educational institutions, private companies, and the healthcare sector by unidentified cyber actors.” The ransomware attacks are initiated by gaining unauthorized access to networks either by exploiting Remote Desktop Protocol…