Months after agreeing to pay $38.5 million to settle federal charges it violated the False Claims Act by improperly originating and underwriting mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, Utah-headquartered Academy Mortgage now finds itself in the also-unenviable position of having its sensitive files dumped on the dark web by the AlphV (BlackCat) ransomware group….
Author: Dissent
Our Definition of Harm Is Harmful
Bill Fitzgerald writes: In April 2023, the class action lawsuit against Illuminate Education was thrown out because the judge in the case determined that the people whose data was impacted by the breach could not show any harm, or any instances of identity theft, from the breach. This decision is both fully in line with past situations…
Ransomware corrupts data, so backups can be faster and cheaper than paying up
Simon Sharwood reports: Ransomware actors aim to spend the shortest amount of time possible inside your systems, and that means the encryption they employ is shoddy and often corrupts your data. That in turn means restoration after paying ransoms is often a more expensive chore than just deciding not to pay and working from our…
CrowdStrike finds new ransomware-as-a-service group targeting VMWare ESXi servers (5 tips to fight back)
Nancy Liu reports: CrowStrike discovered a new ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group — MichaelKors (formerly Qilin) — targeting VMWare ESXi servers since last month. The VMWare ESXi is a hypervisor that runs and manages virtual machines (VMs) directly on a dedicated host’s hardware. The products associated with the ESXi platform include VMware vSphere Hypervisor, vCenter, ONE Access or Identity…
Philadelphia Inquirer hit by cyberattack causing newspaper’s largest disruption in decades
AP reports: The Philadelphia Inquirer experienced the most significant disruption to its operations in 27 years due to what the newspaper calls a cyberattack. The company was working to restore print operations after a cyber incursion that prevented the printing of the newspaper’s Sunday print edition, the Inquirer reported on its website. Read more at…
North Korean Crypto Thefts Surpass $2.5 Billion
Coingape reports: North Korean hackers have stolen $721 million from Japan since 2017, accounting for 30% of the crypto thefts worldwide. According to a study by a U.K.-based compliance specialist, North Korea employs hacking and ransomware to steal crypto assets, especially in Japan, Vietnam and Hong Kong, the leading Asian crypto hubs. Lazarus Group, a North Korean-based hacker group’s…