Incidents involving malware or ransomware. In some cases, incidents called “ransomware” do not involve any locking but merely hack, exfiltrate, and attempt to extort.
An article by Josh Taylor of Fortra begins: Ransomware groups are increasingly inserting AI bots into the negotiation loop to triage victims, collect leverage and scale their operations. At Fortra, I have observed a growing trend of attackers deploying chatbots for first contact, with humans stepping in only after certain thresholds are met. This approach […]
The Record reports: A 47-year-old man was arrested in Poland for his alleged involvement with the Phobos ransomware operation. … Phobos was a ransomware gang that attacked more than 1,000 organizations worldwide, targeting hospitals, schools, government agencies and more. U.S. prosecutors previously said operators of Phobos and a related strain called 8Base collected upwards of […]
The Record reports: A software update mechanism for the popular text editor Notepad++ was hijacked by suspected Chinese state-sponsored hackers, allowing them to silently redirect some users to malicious update servers, the project’s developers announced on Monday. In a security update posted on the project’s website, the development team said the attack did not exploit a flaw […]
Top Class Actions reports: American Addiction Centers Inc. agreed to a $2.75 million class action lawsuit settlement to resolve claims it failed to adequately protect patients’ private information. The settlement benefits individuals whose personal information was potentially compromised in a data breach involving American Addiction Centers on or about Sept. 26, 2024, and who were […]
Help Net Security reports: Law enforcement agencies in Ukraine and Germany have identified two members of a Russian-affiliated ransomware group and carried out searches in western Ukraine. Investigators also named the alleged organizer, a Russian national, and placed him on an international wanted list through INTERPOL. Foreign law enforcement agencies said the individual may have […]
KnowTechie reports: Two former cybersecurity professionals have admitted they were secretly running ransomware attacks on the side. According to an announcement this week from the US Department of Justice, Ryan Goldberg, 40, and Kevin Martin, 36, pleaded guilty to orchestrating a string of ransomware attacks in 2023 that netted them about $1.2 million in Bitcoin. Here’s the […]
Bleeping Computer reports: An Interpol-coordinated initiative called Operation Sentinel led to the arrest of 574 individuals and the recovery of $3 million linked to business email compromise, extortion, and ransomware incidents. Between October 27 and November 27, the investigation, which involved law enforcement in 19 countries, took down more than 6,000 malicious links and decrypted […]
The Record reports: A cyberattack on the library system of Pierce County, Washington exposed the information of more than 340,000 people. The Pierce County Library System published breach notifications this week on its website and with regulators in several states. The letters concern a cybersecurity incident that was first discovered on April 21 and required the library system to shut down […]
Fox25 in Oklahoma reports: The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) is the victim of a cybersecurity attack, and now a hacking group claiming to be responsible is demanding a hefty ransom. On November 20, CCSO made a post on social media saying it was recently impacted by a ransomware attack. The group Rhysida is taking […]
On December 4, the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Financial Trend Analysis of ransomware incidents since January 2022: FinCEN
