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the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, In a major revelation impacting U.S. artificial intelligence policy and 2026 midterm politics, social media platform X (formerly Twitter) announced that its Safety team uncovered a massive foreign influence operation.
Just last February, a sophisticated nationwide scam involving Amazon packages reached Bergen County, prompting an urgent warning from law enforcement. The scam involved unexpected packages arriving at homeowners’ doors containing a QR code that, if scanned, could trigger a malware attack, allowing cybercriminals to access users’ passwords, private photos, and financial apps. More recently, New Jersey officials issued a warning to Amazon Prime users about a phishing scam that uses fake membership renewal emails to steal passwords and financial information.
Continue reading New Amazon Prime Scam Hitting New Jersey Inboxes
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
New Brunswick NJ, A massive nationwide security breach involving Instructure, the parent company of the Canvas Learning Management System, has sent shockwaves through thousands of educational institutions, including Rutgers University.
After several days of suspended access and system instability during a critical exam period, Rutgers officials have announced that services are finally being restored. Here is the latest timeline and what students and faculty need to know.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
A disgruntled infrastructure engineer turned a New Jersey company’s own network against them. From deleting admin accounts to a massive Bitcoin ransom demand, here is the full story of the cyberattack that backfired.
TRENTON, N.J. — The digital “inside man” is often a company’s greatest security nightmare. On April 1, 2026, that nightmare became a federal conviction as 59-year-old Daniel Rhyne pleaded guilty to orchestrating a sophisticated hacking and extortion scheme against his former employer.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Elon Musk revealed that his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), was targeted by a massive cyberattack on Monday, leading to significant outages for thousands of users.
Continue reading Elon Musk Says X Was Hit by a “Massive Cyberattack,” Causing Widespread Outages
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Cybersecurity experts are sounding the alarm: becoming a cybercriminal has never been easier. Thanks to the rise of cybercrime-as-a-service (CaaS) and advanced scam technology, individuals with little to no technical expertise can now launch sophisticated scams with minimal effort.
Continue reading Cybercrime is Booming: Why It’s Never Been Easier to Become an Online Scammer
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Ridgewood NJ, SEC Chair Gary Gensler made the following statement as to the hacking incident of the @SECGov account:
Continue reading SEC Chair Addresses Hack of SEC “X” Account
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Westwood NJ, Two hospitals in New Jersey are currently unable to admit new patients following a ransomware cyberattack that potentially exposed patient information. The affected hospitals, Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair and Hackensack Meridian Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood, both under the Ardent Health Services umbrella, have implemented patient diversion measures, redirecting incoming patients to nearby emergency rooms.
Continue reading Two New Jersey Hospitals Impacted Ransomware Cyberattack
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, CBS is reporting that Over 267 million Facebook users have had their personal information exposed by another massive data breach.
Security researcher Bob Diachenko reportedly made the disturbing find on Dec. 14. Diachenko and U.K. technology research firm Comparitech believe the unprotected database was left open on the dark web for nearly two weeks.
During that time, the names, phone numbers, and Facebook user IDs were exposed in the latest embarrassing mishap for the social media giant.According to CNET, Diachenko believes criminals in Vietnam are responsible for stealing the information. At the moment there are no details on who was impacted.
A Facebook spokesman said in a statement that they are looking into the breach, but claimed the data was probably harvested before Facebook made recent changes to better protect user information.
NEW YORK (AP) — Dozens of countries were hit with a huge cyberextortion attack Friday that locked up computers and held users’ files for ransom at a multitude of hospitals, companies and government agencies.
It was believed to the biggest attack of its kind ever recorded.
The malicious software behind the onslaught appeared to exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows that was supposedly identified by the National Security Agency for its own intelligence-gathering purposes and was later leaked to the internet.
Chris Smith @chris_writes
March 22nd, 2017 at 11:35 AM
Apple’s iPhones and Apple IDs are a tough nut to crack for hackers, but it’s not be impossible. At least that’s what a group of hackers seem to suggest, as they’re currently attempting to blackmail Apple for up to $100,000 before they start remotely wiping millions of iPhones. Can they actually do it? Should you be worried? It’s unclear at this point.
The hackers apparently engaged in conversations with the media to force Apple’s hand. The Turkish Crime Family hacker group, which spoke to Motherboard, want either $75,000 in Bitcoin or Ethereum, or $100,000 worth of iTunes gift cards.
“I just want my money and thought this would be an interesting report that a lot of Apple customers would be interested in reading and hearing,” one of the hackers said.
Apparently, the hackers have been in contact with Apple’s security team for quite a while now. They even posted a video on YouTube to prove they have actual access to iCloud accounts, access which can be used to remotely wipe iPhones.
https://bgr.com/2017/03/22/apple-iphone-and-icloud-accounts-hacked/
By Adam Clark and Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 20, 2017 at 4:47 PM, updated January 20, 2017 at 9:12 PM
NEW BRUNSWICK — The FBI has interviewed a Rutgers University computer science student who has been identified by a well-known cyber security blogger as the likely author of the malicious code that caused a massive Internet disruption in October. The expert said the student also may be linked to repeated attacks on Rutgers’ computer system starting in late 2014.
While he says he does not know who may have actually launched the massive “denial of service” or DDoS attacks last fall, the security researcher said the coding language used and other anecdotal evidence seemed to point to the 20-year-old-student, Paras Jha, as an author of the malware used to shut down hundreds of computer servers.
The student’s father, Anand Jha, confirmed that federal investigators have questioned his son, but he adamantly denied he had any knowledge of the attacks or was involved in any way.
By JOHN SICILIANO • 1/6/17 6:53 PM
Russia engaged in an anti-fracking campaign to hurt the U.S. energy industry, which has become a huge competitor for Russian natural gas giant Gazprom, according to a declassified U.S. intelligence report released Friday.
The U.S. intelligence community showed that the Russian government made extensive use of its government-controlled media, primarily the cable news channel RT, to broadcast “support for other Russian interests in areas such as foreign and energy policy.”
The report showed that RT ran “anti-fracking programming, highlighting environmental issues and the impacts on public health,” which is “likely reflective of the Russian government’s concern about the impact of fracking and U.S. natural gas production on the global energy market and the potential challenges to Gazprom’s profitability.”
Trump: We must aggressively combat and stop cyberattacks to ensure America’s safety and security
January 6,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, President–elect Donald J. Trump released the following statement at the conclusion of the meeting with Intelligence Community leaders:
“I had a constructive meeting and conversation with the leaders of the Intelligence Community this afternoon. I have tremendous respect for the work and service done by the men and women of this community to our great nation.
“While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines. There were attempts to hack the Republican National Committee, but the RNC had strong hacking defenses and the hackers were unsuccessful.
“Whether it is our government, organizations, associations or businesses we need to aggressively combat and stop cyberattacks. I will appoint a team to give me a plan within 90 days of taking office. The methods, tools and tactics we use to keep America safe should not be a public discussion that will benefit those who seek to do us harm. Two weeks from today I will take the oath of office and America’s safety and security will be my number one priority.”
Micah Lee
January 4 2017, 2:38 p.m.
AFTER THE U.S. GOVERNMENT published a report on Russia’s cyber attacks against the U.S. election system, and included a list of computers that were allegedly used by Russian hackers, I became curious if any of these hackers had visited my personal blog. The U.S. report, which boasted of including “technical details regarding the tools and infrastructure used by Russian civilian and military intelligence services,” came with a list of 876 suspicious IP addresses used by the hackers, and these addresses were the clues I needed to, in the end, understand a gaping weakness in the report.
An IP address is a set of numbers that identifies a computer, or a network of computers, on the internet. Each time someone loads my website, it logs their IP address. So I searched my web server logs for the suspicious IP addresses, and I was shocked to discover over 80,000 web requests from IPs used by the Russian hackers in the last 14 months! Digging further, I found that some of these Russian hackers had even posted comments (mostly innocuous technical questions)! Even today, several days after publication of the report (which used a codename for the Russian attack, Grizzly Steppe), I’m still finding these suspicious IP addresses in my logs — although I would expect the Russians to stop using them after the U.S. government exposed them.
