In a year when they were already dealing with COVID-19 and then accusations that a teacher had improper emails with students, Union Community School District in Iowa found itself with a third major challenge — a ransomware attack. But whereas the district has publicly acknowledged and discussed its response to the first two challenges, they…
Category: Breach Incidents
Babuk re-organizes as Payload Bin, offers its first leak
At the end of April, threat actors known as Babuk indicated that they were closing up shop and switching to a different model: Babuk changes direction, we no longer encrypt information on networks, we will get to you and take your data, we will notify you about it if you do not get in touch…
How to Negotiate with Ransomware Hackers
Rachel Monroe has an interesting profile of a ransom negotiator in The New Yorker. But the piece also provides an answer to a puzzling claim in a blog post by REvil that referred to fraudulent middlemen. When the negotiator hired by a victim entered the chat, they discovered that someone had already been negotiating with…
Secret Chats Show How Cybergang Became a Ransomware Powerhouse
There’s an interesting piece by Andrew E. Kramer, Michael Schwirtz and Anton Troianovski in the New York Times: Secret Chats Show How Cybergang Became a Ransomware Powerhouse. The reporters obtained access to the internal dashboard that DarkSide customers used to organize and carry out ransom attacks and their piece provides some insights as to how DarkSide “support” dealt with…
CA: Azusa Police reveal ransomware attack in March
On March 17, the DoppelPaymer threat actors added Azusa Police Department in California to the leak site where they list ransomware victims who have refused to pay their ransom demands. On April 22, the threat actors increased the pressure on the department — or attempted to — by dumping some files as proof that they…
After going up, up, up, will ransom payments in healthcare and education sectors start dropping?
Key points: More than half of ransomware victims reportedly pay ransom, but there is an absence of quality data and reporting that would enable better analyses. As payouts have increased, the number of customers electing to have cyberinsurance coverage (the take-up rate) has increased, although SMBs lag behind mid- to large-sized entities. As payouts have…