Here’s your monthly roundup of the latest hacks and data breaches around the world. In this monthly series, I’ll share information and updates on the most recent hacks that I saw in the news, including causes, resolutions, and what you can do to protect your data.
It was a crazy couple of weeks in the cybersecurity world. We saw what has now become the usual list of successful cyber attacks and data breaches across all industries, with government entities dominating the list.
There was a lot of excitement when Disney launched their Disney+ platform, giving fans access to old Disney owned movies and shows. For thousands of customers, the excitement did not last long, since their data was stolen and posted for sale on the dark web. Disney is denying that their customers’ data was stolen from their platform, claiming the data must have been stolen from other means. This can be a frustrating answer for those affected. It is important to change your login information if you think your data was stolen in this cybersecurity attack. Read more.
The Louisiana state cybersecurity team responded to an attempted ransomware attack on multiple state agencies this past month. When the attack was discovered, the team took state agency servers offline, impacting emails, websites, and other online applications. Having to do this can be extremely costly for any organization, let alone an entire state government. Making sure you have the security tools in place to prevent this network is essential. TAP your tools! Read more.
National Veterinary Associates is a California based company that owns more than 700 animal care facilities. They are currently working on recovering from a ransomware attack that affected more than half of their properties. About 400 veterinary hospitals were affected and experienced stolen data including patient records, payment information, and management software data. Ransomware attacks can be extremely costly. Hackers are no longer just going after Fortune 500 companies. Instead they are now targeting SMBs and other companies that may be an easier target. These attacks reminds everyone about the importance of network security. Read more.
With the election in the UK, the Labour party suffered an attempted cyber attack this month. A cyber attacker tried to expose the names of online donors. The Labour Party stated that there are ongoing security processes in place and after looking into the event, the attack was unsuccessful ue to their strong network security strategy. It is important to remember to double check the security of your data, especially when there’s going to be an expected increase of activity. Read more.
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If the inline security tool goes off-line, the TAP will bypass the tool and automatically keep the link flowing. The Bypass TAP does this by sending heartbeat packets to the inline security tool. As long as the inline security tool is on-line, the heartbeat packets will be returned to the TAP, and the link traffic will continue to flow through the inline security tool.
If the heartbeat packets are not returned to the TAP (indicating that the inline security tool has gone off-line), the TAP will automatically 'bypass' the inline security tool and keep the link traffic flowing. The TAP also removes the heartbeat packets before sending the network traffic back onto the critical link.
While the TAP is in bypass mode, it continues to send heartbeat packets out to the inline security tool so that once the tool is back on-line, it will begin returning the heartbeat packets back to the TAP indicating that the tool is ready to go back to work. The TAP will then direct the network traffic back through the inline security tool along with the heartbeat packets placing the tool back inline.
Some of you may have noticed a flaw in the logic behind this solution! You say, “What if the TAP should fail because it is also in-line? Then the link will also fail!” The TAP would now be considered a point of failure. That is a good catch – but in our blog on Bypass vs. Failsafe, I explained that if a TAP were to fail or lose power, it must provide failsafe protection to the link it is attached to. So our network TAP will go into Failsafe mode keeping the link flowing.
Single point of failure: a risk to an IT network if one part of the system brings down a larger part of the entire system.
Heartbeat packet: a soft detection technology that monitors the health of inline appliances. Read the heartbeat packet blog here.
Critical link: the connection between two or more network devices or appliances that if the connection fails then the network is disrupted.