Author: Caleb Townsend

Caleb Townsend is a staff writer  for the United States Cybersecurity Magazine. He has been crafting his passion for film-making and script writing since childhood. While not a tech person by training, Caleb has held a passion for journalism and writing, which he discovered working for his college newspaper. Caleb graduated from Eastern Mennonite University in 2017, receiving his bachelor’s degree for Digital Media with a minor in Journalism, and is now a full time employee of the United States Cybersecurity Magazine.

Haywood County School Latest in String of Virtual Learning Cyberattacks

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

Distance Learning

Across the country, many students are going back to school. A larger portion of the country’s youth are learning remotely. However, a cyber attack in North Carolina’s Haywood County School district puts the viability of online learning into question. According to the local news, a ransomware attack shut down the schooling district for the entire … Read more

SANS Institute Suffers Data Breach as a Result of Phishing Attack

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

SANS Phishing, fish hook grabbing key on keyboard

The Escal Institute of Advanced Technologies, otherwise known as the SANS Institute, suffered a data breach resulting the loss of 28,000 items of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The data breach was a direct result a single employee who fell victim to a phishing attack. The Maryland-based SANS Institute has a reputation for their highly regarded … Read more

Capital One to Pay $80 Million Fine for 2019 Breach

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

Capital One

As a result of a 2019 breach, Capital One is facing a penalty payment of $80 million. The fine came from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The penalty is over failed security measures involving moving key IT systems to the public cloud in a timely manner. In a scathing report, the OCC … Read more

Intel Suffers Data Leak Containing 20GB of Information

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

Intel Chip

Semiconductor chip manufacturer Intel is investigating a data breach, revealing 20 gigabytes of their internal documents leaked online. The data came to Twitter via Till Kottmann, a Swedish Android developer with a self proclaimed history of data leaks. Yesterday at noon, Kottmann tweeted, “Intel exconfidential Lake Platform Release 😉 This is the first 20gb release … Read more

VCU Breach Affects Over 176,000 VCU Students, Staff, and Affiliates.

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

College classroom

The Virginia Commonwealth University has suffered a massive international data breach in which alumni information was stolen. The breach has affected 176,567 current and former VCU students, staff, and affiliates. Blackbaud, an online cloud platform that VCU uses for development and alumni related activities, was the company that found the breach. According to a letter … Read more

Havenly Data Breach Affects 1.3 Million Users

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

Havenly interior design example

The United States based online home interior design company Havenly has suffered a data breach impacting over 1.3 million users. According to an HaveIBeenPwned, a website that notifies users if their emails are part of any data breaches, data obtained by hackers includes “email addresses, names, phone numbers, geographic locations and passwords stored as SHA-1 … Read more

Drizly Hit by Data Breach Affecting Over 2.5 Million Accounts

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

Drizly

Alcohol delivery service app Drizly has revealed that they suffered a massive data breach. Hackers mined information from over 2.5 million accounts. According to a report from Tech Crunch, an email issued to Drizly customers stated that an unauthorized party obtained data from customers, including email addresses, IP addresses, passwords, phone numbers, dates of birth, … Read more

Coronavirus Could Affect Nation’s Cybersecurity

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

Coronavirus

Throughout the week, the Coronavirus has escalated to an unprecedented epidemic. We are seeing businesses shut down, events get cancelled, and worldwide, businesses are reckoning with the implications of sending employees home. While certain jobs can be done remotely without a worry, the federal government sector faces a unique problem; how will their absence strain … Read more

US Gas Pipeline Is Stalled for Two Days Due to Ransomware Attack

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

oil pipeline plant natural gas station equipment

Yesterday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) released an advisory informing the public that a ransomware attack has impacted the operations of an unnamed natural gas compression facility. This has forced the facility to shut down operations for two days while attempting to recover from the attack. According to the advisory, a malicious actor gained … Read more

Rutter’s Issues Statement Informing Card Users of Data Breach

Author(s):

Caleb Townsend, Staff Writer, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

Gas station

The popular convenience store chain Rutter’s has reported that customer’s personal information was compromised at some of their Pennsylvania and West Virginia locations. According to a notice released by Rutter’s, they received a report from a third party indicating that the malicious actors accessed payment card data from point-of-sale devices at certain fuel pumps. Additionally, … Read more