January 30, 2018 Incidents of cyber extortion have risen steadily over the past couple of years and, by many estimates, will continue to be a major source of disruption for many organizations. Cyber extortion can take many forms, but it typically involves cybercriminals’ demanding money to stop (or in some cases, to merely delay) their…
Month: January 2018
Ca: Queen’s students affected by McMaster security breach
Iain Sherriff-Scott reports: After a cyber intrusion at McMaster University in November, some Queen’s students have been notified their admissions information may have been compromised. In a letter sent from Melissa Pool of McMaster’s University Registrar to several Queen’s students who had previously applied to the University, Pool explained, “an unauthorized individual accessed a secured…
More than half of ransomware victims hit at least twice
Tony Morbin reports: New research on ransomware by Sophos reveals that the average total cost of an attack is US$ 133,000 (£94,000), including ransom, downtime, manpower, device cost, network cost, and lost opportunities – but for the top five percent most impacted organisations, costs were US$1.3 million to US$6.6 million (£900,000 to £4.7 million). More…
SC school district latest victim to ransomware
Kendall Morris reports: A South Carolina school district is the latest victim to ransomware. Chester County School District posted on its Facebook page Monday that ransomware hit the district’s servers over the weekend. The post went on to say that no data has been taken or breached, and it has a specialist on site to…
Hackers Behind Dridex Also Created FriedEx Ransomware
ESET reports: In a new blog post researchers from ESET researchers reveal that that the authors behind the infamous Dridex banking trojan are also behind the high-profile, sophisticated ransomware variant FriedEx. The ransomware was discovered in early July 2017 by Michael Gillespie. In August, it returned to the spotlight and made headlines by infecting NHS hospitals in Scotland. FriedEx…
MO: Licensed Professional Counselor Pleads Guilty to $175,000 Medicaid Fraud Scheme
A DOJ press release, but unfortunately, it doesn’t reveal for whom the defendant was working when she misused patient information. Was she self-employed or an employee of another entity? Jefferson City, Mo. – Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley announced that Corrine A. Dale, of St. Louis, entered an open plea in St. Louis County Circuit Court…