Your cyber insurance policy may not always have your back in a ransomware attack, but we can. Get access to practical steps and actionable advice from our security experts to automate prevention and rapid containment in the event of a breach. Content Summary Introduction Understand the Ransomware Threat Identify Methods of Infection Common, Prevalent, and …
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), US National Security Agency (NSA), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Republic of Korea (ROK) National Intelligence Service (NIS), and the ROK Defense Security Agency (DSA) have issued a joint alert detailing the tactics, techniques, and …
The hackers behind the recent ransomware attacks against VMware ESXi hypervisor have reportedly modified the malware in a way that makes it more difficult for victims to use available decryption tools. A modified encryption routine encrypts a significantly larger amount of data. Note Of course they improve. On the other hand, all exposed vulnerable systems …
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have published a joint security alert providing guidance on ESXiArgs ransomware virtual machine recovery. CISA has released a recovery script; the security alert offers guidance on using that script. Note Great move by CISA to provide the recovery script. The …
Both France’s and Italy’s Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) have issued alerts warning “of attack campaigns targeting VMware ESXi hypervisors with the aim of deploying ransomware on them.” The vulnerability (CVE-2021-21974) affects ESXi 7.0, 6.7 and 6.5. Support for ESXi 6.7 and 6.5 ended in October 2022. The flaw was disclosed, and a fix was …
Maryland’s Atlantic General Hospital is experiencing disruptions to some services following a ransomware attack. Healthcare professionals are operating on EHR downtime procedures. Most patients can still be seen; the attack has caused outages affecting the hospital’s pharmacy, outpatient imaging, outpatient walk-in lab, and pulmonary function testing Note The Healthcare Sector was frequently targeted for ransomware …
Financial software firm ION Group was the victim of a ransomware attack on January 31. The attack affected ION’s Cleared Derivatives division. In a press release, ION wrote, “The incident is contained to a specific environment, all the affected servers are disconnected.” Note Not a lot of information out on this one – the important …
As the digital age continues to progresses, it is increasingly important that we understand how to stay secure and protected when browsing online. It is becoming more and more likely that we will come across malicious sites and vulnerable networks, so it is essential that we take the necessary precautions to protect ourselves when browsing …
The October 2020 ransomware that infected the network of Hackney Council in East London has had lasting repercussions. Many of its services, including housing benefits and social care, were unavailable for about a year. While Hackney did not pay the ransom demand, the associated costs to the Council have exceeded £12 million ($14.8 million). Note …
An international law enforcement effort has disrupted the infrastructure of the Hive ransomware group. Authorities have seized US-based servers and have shut down two of the group’s data leak sites. The takedown effort was aided by FBI agents who infiltrated the Hive network and maintained a presence on their servers for seven months. Note The …
The digital infrastructure of the Bitzlato virtual currency exchange was taken down in an international operation involving authorities from the US, France, Belgium, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands. Authorities said that nearly half of Bitzlato’s transactions were tied to criminal activity. Five people have been arrested in all: three in Spain, one in Cyprus, …
Studies from two security firms suggest that ransomware victims are increasingly refusing to pay the attackers’ demands. According to Chainalysis, ransomware payments fell from $766 million in 2021 to $457 in 2022. Coveware reports that 76 percent of ransomware victims paid the ransom demands in 2019, while that figure fell to 41 percent in 2022. …
This article could start by reviewing the college that closed permanently after a ransomware attack or the large school district that suffered an incident during a recent holiday weekend. Or it could focus on how critical infrastructure—such as water treatment plants, pipelines, and meat processing plants—are increasingly under attack. We could even comment on the …
After several years of sustained “growth,” 2022 was the first time that the volume of cryptocurrency transactions linked to criminal activity saw a decline (they actually went up, but if we remove the sanctions category, which is more of a gray area, they went down). Several categories, such as ransomware, scams, darknet markets, financial fraud …
Royal Mail, which suffered a ransomware attack earlier this month, is slowly recovering from the incident. Initially, the attack disrupted the UK postal service company’s operations, rendering it unable to ship overseas. Earlier this week, Royal Mail said that it has “resumed the export of letters which do not require a customs declaration to all …
