The pharmacy Walgreens was criticized last month for leaving confidential COVID-19 test patient information exposed online without any protection. According to Vox.com, patients who received a test from Walgreens in the past year had their name, date of birth, gender identity, phone number, address, and e-mail "left on the open web for potentially anyone to see.

Iowa-based agriculture group New Cooperative, which produces about 40% of the United States' grain supply, is the latest victim of ransomware group BlackMatter. The incident "could lead to a food shortage in the coming weeks and months," according to ChannelFutures.

The International Association of Ports and Harbors, a global organization representing ports worldwide that works with the United Nations, has released an 84-page document outlining "IAPH Cybersecurity Guidelines for Ports and Port Facilities."

According to the Executive Summary of the document, "The risk of a cyber-attack has become the top risk for port authorities and the wider port community.

At the end of August, the Boston Public Library experienced a cyber attack which took caused a system-wide outage throughout the city's branches as well as the central branch in Copley Square.

"Affected systems were taken offline immediately, and proactive steps were taken to isolate the problem and shutdown network communication," the library said in a statement on their website.

Howard University, located in Washington D.C., was forced to cancel classes the day after Labor Day as the school became the latest institute of higher learning to face a ransomware attack. During the first week of the month, Howard's information technology department intentionally shut down the school's network after detecting what they called "unusual activity.

At the end of last month, on July 27, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing regarding the rise of ransomware attacks in the US which included top cyber officials.

Over the past year, there has been a 300% increase in attacks, costing businesses $300 million, according to the Department of Justice.

A giant data breach affecting 170 hospitals and healthcare centers across the US exposed confidential health information of hundreds of thousands of patients, multiple organizations have revealed. The attack, which took place on April 6, targeted Elekta, a Swedish developer whose software powers the linear accelerators used in radiation therapy.

Solarwinds "Building a Secure Future 2021" which surveyed 967 tech pros, managers, and directors from a diverse intersection of private, public, small, and enterprise-sized organizations.

45% of respondents attributed lack of budget to be a leading barrier against risk mitigation, while another 45% said it's because of lack of training.

Come join Direct iT at the Associated Subcontractors of Massachusetts 25th Anniversary Golf Tournament!

From sending virtual links to hitting the actual links.

Join us at Pine Hills Golf Club in Plymouth, MA on Thursday, July 29, 2021. Tee off is at 10AM and there are currently over 100 participants.