This Week in Breach: Georgia's Administrative Office of the Courts and Judicial Council of Georgia
Exploit: Ransomware
Georgia’s Administrative Office of the Courts and Judicial Council of Georgia: Digital information arm for the Georgia state court system
Risk to Small Business: Severe: A malware attack infected the agency’s computer network with ransomware, encrypting their files and disrupting many of their services. Officials have yet to reveal the ransom amount, but it marks the second significant ransomware attack for a Georgian government agency in 15 months. Fortunately, the agency does not store personal information on the affected network, and servers were brought offline to prevent malware from spreading. The previous attack in 2018 cost $7.2 million, foreshadowing another expensive blow that can be measured in time and money.
| Individual Risk: No personal information was compromised in the breach.
Customers Impacted: Unknown How it Could Affect Your Business: Ransomware attacks wreak havoc on an organization's operational and financial integrity. To make matters worse, they are increasingly becoming more common and costly. Nevertheless, many ransomware attacks are delivered through phishing emails, which can be thwarted through organizational cybersecurity training for employees. Given the exceedingly high recovery expense and cascading damages caused by a ransomware attack, such training is the most cost-effective way of protecting your company. |
In Other News: Company Cut Off from Government Contracts After Data Breach
Last month, Perceptics, a maker of license plate readers used by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CPB), endured a significant data breach that resulted in 65,000 files published to the Dark Web.
As a result, the company has been placed on a veritable government black list, suspending Perceptics from procuring government...