Marshall & Sterling Insurance September 2016 | Page 2

SEP 2016

DID YOU KNOW?
Despite the growing number of states that allow for either medical or
recreational marijuana use, the Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) issued a statement last month saying that marijuana will remain
a Schedule 1 drug—the most restrictive classification. However, the
DEA also said that it will ease regulations that will allow more
suppliers to produce the drug for medical research.

IN THIS ISSUE
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Brazilian Hacktivists Attack Olympic
Broadcasting Services. Despite
heightened cyber security, a group of
hackers gained access to Olympic
Broadcasting Services’ employee
information.
NOAA Launches Powerful Flood
Forecasting Tool. Powered by a
supercomputer, the National Water
Model will radically improve the
nation’s ability to forecast and react
to floods
Heavy Lifting in Youth Linked to Back
Pain Later in Life. A long-term Finnish
study has found that workers who
engaged in heavy lifting when they
were young are twice as likely to
develop lower back pain later in life.

Provided by:
Marshall & Sterling Insurance

Brazilian Hacktivists Attack Olympic
Broadcasting Services
Despite diligent preparation, it would appear that Olympic
Broadcasting Services (OBS)—the host broadcasters responsible for
delivering the audio and video to those who purchased rights to
broadcast the Olympic games around the world—suffered a data
breach during the Olympics in Rio last month. The effect of the data
breach could be huge, since OBS is the single largest employer
involved in the Olympic games, with more than 7,100 workers from
69 countries on its payroll.
The attack appears to have been the work of a group of Brazilian
hacktivists. That group used social media to publish proof of the
hack, including OBS employees’ and freelancers’ names, email
addresses, job titles, and mobile and landline phone numbers. Some
analysts also suspect that the hacktivists may have been responsible
for the collapse of an OBS video camera on Aug. 15 that injured some
spectators.
Still, the data breach appears to have been relatively limited, thanks
to heightened security measures. OBS officials detected the breach
quickly, shut down the particular avenue of attack in order to install
extra security measures, and sent out an email informing its
employees of the breach and reemphasizing the importance of being
suspicious of phishing emails.
For more information on how to reduce your vulnerability to a cyber
attack or how to respond when one is discovered, contact your
partners at Marshall & Sterling and visit our cyber center