Huff Data Systems

06/19/2026

06-18-26: Texas Parks & Wildlife Department reported a cybersecurity incident related to the system for selling hunting and fishing licenses may have exposed users' information, including driver's license and passport details, according to officials.

A cybersecurity incident involving the Texas Parks & Wildlife system for selling hunting and fishing licenses may have exposed users' information, including driver's license and passport details, according to officials.

On Thursday, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department reported the data security incident to its users, saying the breach involved some users' personal information.

The data breach, detected by Texas Cyber Command, involved the license system vendor that handles the sale of hunting and fishing licenses, TPWD said in a statement.

Investigators said that unauthorized actors may have obtained the following information from TPWD systems:

Driver's license information
Passport numbers
Email addresses
Phone numbers
Residential addresses
TPWD officials said that information such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and financial information, including credit card details, was not obtained from this incident. They added that there was no evidence that customers under 18 were affected by the breach.

What you can do
TPWD is offering one free year of credit monitoring for those affected by the cybersecurity incident. Click here for more information.

Additionally, a dedicated call center was set up at (844) 959-7123 from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. CT, Monday through Friday, to answer questions about the incident or the services being offered.

Officials also advised affected customers to actively monitor their accounts for fraud, to stay on the lookout for scams, and to consider freezing their credit.

Texas Parks and Wildlife said the system that stores information about the sale of hunting and fishing licenses was affected by a cybersecurity incident, adding that a hacker may have obtained information such as driver's license and passport numbers.

06/19/2026

Malicious Website Redirects Using Advertisements..

How a Malicious Traffic Distribution System Works

Initiation of Redirection Cyber criminals use a variety of methods to drive users to a TDS, including social engineering techniques, such as links included in phishing emails, search engine optimization poisoning2 that promotes fraudulent advertisement links that mimic legitimate ones, or the compromise of legitimate websites through changes to the website code.
Legitimate websites are vulnerable to cyber criminal compromise when using insecure passwords or outdated website themes and plugins. Cyber criminals obtain unauthorized access to websites by brute forcing3 weak administrative passwords or leveraging exploits for outdated website plugins. After obtaining administrative access to legitimate websites, cyber criminals edit the website’s code, which redirects website visitors to a malicious TDS.

Today the FBI released a warning the public about cyber criminal use of traffic distribution systems (TDSs) to gain access to victim networks for ransomware or other financial scams. Cyber criminals use TDS to bypass traditional firewall rules that would otherwise block connections to malicious websites, and to analyze potential victims for targeting by collecting their IP address, operating system, location, device, and browser information. After driving users to a TDS, often through various social engineering techniques, cyber criminals can exploit users’ devices at the end of the TDS redirection chain by delivering phishing pages, financial scams, and other malware.

Learn more about how the scam works and review recommendations on how to protect yourself: https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2026/PSA260618

06/17/2026

Reasons such as this are why multi factor and limiting which devices can login to accounts are critical cybersecurity controls. Billions of logins leaked.. some of these are no doubt used for business and have been or will be use for cyberattacks leading to data breaches.

If you don’t have MFA enabled on any of your accounts, the time was a few years back, but do it today.

Cybernews researchers discovered an exposed database containing 24 billion records, including usernames, email addresses, plaintext passwords, and login URLs. The data appears to come from infostealer malware logs, records stolen from infected devices and collected from Telegram channels, breach compilations, and other sources.

Key takeaways:

Cybernews researchers found an exposed Elasticsearch cluster containing 24 billion records and more than 8.3TB of data.

Most records appear to be infostealer logs, including usernames, emails, passwords, and login URLs.

The data came from 36 sources, including Telegram channels, breach compilations, and large “collections.”

Researchers cannot yet confirm how many records are duplicates or how many unique people were affected.

The database is no longer publicly exposed, but reused passwords may still put accounts at risk.

Cybernews researchers discovered 24 billion exposed records including usernames, passwords, and URLs from infostealer malware, Telegram channels, and breach compilations.

06/17/2026

Newer vehicles are not just transportation anymore.
They share your location and usage with manufactures and your data is often sold to 3rd parties as well. They are rolling data collectors.
Example of how to opt-out..

This video shows how many modern cars collect and share driver data, including information from connected apps, telematics systems, driving behavior, location, and other vehicle activity. The suggested first step is to check what your vehicle may be collecting by using a VIN-based privacy report, then review your opt-out options where available.

The bigger takeaway: convenience features often come with hidden data collection.

For businesses, this is another reminder that connected devices, vehicles, phones, cameras, smart TVs, and IoT equipment all create data privacy and cybersecurity risk. If it connects to the internet, it needs to be reviewed, managed, and protected.

Your car may know more about you than you think.

Is your car spying on you? Here’s how to check. Go to vehicleprivac...

06/17/2026

We were made by someone sharing a data breach notification letter with us that QualDerm locations had a data breach of patient records in Texas and other states locations as they notified Texas AG as required by law.

These are popular dermatology and plastic surgery clinics. 174,000+ in Texas estimated to had their data breached.

If you have received a notification, recommend freezing and monitoring credit reports. Getting ID Theft insurance coverage.

It seems this happened months ago they may have failed to notify patients and others per law

“Texas data breach notification laws require businesses and organizations to notify affected individuals within 60 days of discovering a breach. Additionally, breaches affecting 250 or more Texans must be reported to the Office of the Texas Attorney General electronically within 30 days of discovery.”

https://qualderm.com/find-a-location?q=texas

QualDerm Partners manages a network of 158 dermatology, skin cancer, cosmetic, and plastic surgery practices across 17 states. While headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee, the network primarily spans the Southeast, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic regions, operating under partner brands like Pinnacle Dermatology and Tru-Skin Dermatology.

Texas: Synergy Plastic Surgery, Tru-Skin Dermatology, Pinnacle Dermatology are examples of Texas locations

06/16/2026

What CFO’s, CEO’s often find out after a cyber attack is a key control was not in place that would of prevented the intial access and stopped the data breach and or ransomware event from happing.

Often something as simple as MFA or monitoring and alerting. Cyber insurance payouts could be reduced or denied if boxes were just checked on sections like..

Here are questions businesses often answer too quickly or incorrectly on cyber insurance applications:

1. Do you have MFA enabled for all remote access, email, VPN, and admin accounts?
2. Is MFA enforced for every user, or only some users?
3. Do you have endpoint detection and response installed on all servers and workstations?
4. Are backups performed regularly, stored offsite or immutable, and tested for recovery?
5. When was the last time you successfully restored from backup?
6. Do users have local administrator rights on their computers?
7. Are security patches applied regularly to servers, workstations, firewalls, and network equipment?
8. Do you have a written incident response plan?
9. Do you provide cybersecurity awareness training and phishing testing?
10. Do you monitor logs, alerts, and suspicious activity after hours and on weekends?
11. Do you have email security controls in place, such as phishing protection, spam filtering, and domain protection?
12. Do you have a firewall, and is it actively managed, updated, and monitored?
13. Are old user accounts disabled immediately when employees leave?
14. Do you use separate admin accounts for IT administration?
15. Do you have documented policies for wire transfers, vendor payments, and approval changes?
16. Do you protect against business email compromise and fraudulent payment requests?
17. Do you have cyber insurance exclusions related to ransomware, social engineering, or funds transfer fraud?
18. Can you prove the controls you claimed on the application were actually in place before a claim?

The biggest mistake is not just answering “yes.”
The biggest mistake is answering “yes” without proof, documentation, monitoring, or testing.

06/16/2026

The WSJ video “The Hidden Backdoors Inside Millions of Smart Devices” is a wake-up call for every business and home network.

That cheap streaming box, internet-connected picture frame, or smart device ordered online may not be as harmless as it looks.

Some of these devices can be compromised before they ever arrive or shortly after being connected to Wi-Fi. Once online, they can be used as residential proxies, allowing cybercriminals to route their activity through real homes and businesses while hiding where they actually are.

The device may still work normally, so the owner has no idea anything is wrong.

But in the background, it could be helping criminals commit fraud, steal credentials, launch attacks, or hide malicious traffic.

This is why cybersecurity is no longer just about protecting computers, servers, and email accounts.

If it connects to your network, it needs to be known, controlled, segmented, and monitored.

Unknown smart devices are not convenience items anymore. They can become hidden doors into your network.

What to do:

If your home or business has one Wi-Fi network where everything connects, including computers, phones, printers, streaming boxes, cameras, and other smart devices, you are making the risk much worse.

When a compromised IoT device is on the same network as your computers, it can make it much easier for attackers to reach other systems, scan the network, or attempt unauthorized access.

At a minimum, IoT devices should be placed on their own segmented wireless network, separate from computers, servers, and business systems.

Additional controls can also reduce the risk, including secure DNS filtering such as Cloudflare DNS, firewall rules that detect and block suspicious outbound connections, botnet blocking, and monitoring for unusual traffic leaving the network.

The goal is simple: do not let a cheap streaming box, smart camera, or picture frame sit on the same trusted network as the systems that run your business. Reconsider the risk, unplug/disconnect these devices, only buy from streaming boxes brands like Apple or Roku as example.

We help identify whats on your network and can help you verify whats really on your business Wi-Fi and if more segmentation is needed. If your simply using your Internet providers default router with Wi-Fi then that answer 90% of the time is YES.

Millions of everyday consumer devices, especially knockoffs that yo...

06/08/2026

Sharing..

🚨 SCAM ALERT 🚨

The Victoria County Sheriff’s Office wants to remind the public that deputies will NEVER call, text, email, or message you to collect money for missed jury duty.

If you receive a call claiming to be from law enforcement and demanding payment because you missed jury duty, it is a scam.

❌ Do not provide personal or financial information
❌ Do not send money, gift cards, or electronic payments
❌ Do not follow instructions from the caller

If you receive one of these calls, hang up immediately and report it to local law enforcement.

Please share this message to help protect others from becoming victims.

06/04/2026

👀 Watch this: a dog walks right over a baby deer tucked into the leaves, looks around, and runs off — totally confused. The fawn’s camouflage was just too good.

Here’s the thing: a lot of businesses’ cybersecurity works exactly like that dog.

The software is installed. The screen says you’re protected. But today’s cyberattacks are designed to blend into your environment — and older, “set it and forget it” security tools walk right past them without a clue.

In fact, modern ransomware now uses tricks like fileless attacks and code that constantly changes itself to slip past traditional defenses  (BlackFog 2025 report). Your tools can look perfectly fine and still miss the threat sitting right in front of them.

Having security installed isn’t the same as having security that actually sees the danger.

Not sure what your current setup is really catching? That’s exactly the kind of thing we help Texas businesses figure out — before someone else finds the gap first. 📩