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The Ascension Healthcare Network announced on Wednesday that it halted clinical operations due to a cybersecurity event. However, it insists that its procedures ensure that “delivery continues to be safe and as minimally impacted as possible.” It’s unclear how much of its 140-hospital network was affected. It’s brought in third-party cybersecurity firm Mandiant to assist in the situation.

The Ascension attack is most likely motivated by money, and it is a grim echo of healthcare-system cyberattacks that have rattled the industry in recent years — most notably the ransomware attack on Change Healthcare.

Thursday’s Chrome update 124 includes patches to zero-day vulnerability CVE-2024-4671. This is the second vulnerability exploited in malicious attacks this year, according to Google. For perspective, Google and Mandiant did joint-monitoring of zero-day vulnerabilities in 2023, with eight targeting Chrome. The companies reported that spyware vendors were the driving force behind the exploits.

The patch arrived just two days after an anonymous researcher reported the vulnerability on May 7.

Latvian television was recently taken over by hackers who disrupted transmissions by Balticom by attacking content provider Cert.Iv. During the attack, footage of the Victory Day military parade in Moscow was aired, leading many to speculate about its Russian origin. The hacked broadcast lasted about 20 minutes.

The actual motives behind the attack are still unclear, and Cert.Iv is investigating the incident along with Balticom. Victory Day is the yearly Russian celebration commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Interesting Read

Will antitrust accusations gain legal traction on Google? Neil C. Hughes, writing for Cybernews, gives us this great write-up that details the full legal saga. Perhaps no other company better defines the meteoric rise of tech companies over the last quarter-century. And the pending judgement in the ongoing antitrust case in the US has the attention of the tech industry rapt.

An example of their behemoth-like control over competition: Alphabet (the company that owns and runs Google) paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 in order to stay the default search engine in Safari. Learn more about the case in this article.

Employment Tip: Change Jobs to Increase Pay

Cybersecurity professionals can augment their pay over time by changing positions every 2-3 years. This maximizes earning potential and leverages market demand for skilled professionals. But such a strategy needs to be balanced with other considerations, like job security and professional relationships.

For the latest openings in cybersecurity careers, check CybersecurityHQ.

Stay Safe, Stay Secure.

The CybersecurityHQ Team