When I saw the ransomware attack on the British Dental Association noted on a Russian-language forum, I didn’t think too much about it. After all, it was just another professional organization or guild organization, right? Maybe I should have paid more attention because the organization may have stored more personal and sensitive information that I…
Category: Malware
CO: Lafayette pays $45,000 in ransom after cyber-attack disabled computer system
Keely Sugden and Evan Kruegel report: The mayor of Lafayette posted a video Tuesday, saying the City has paid a $45,000 ransom after a cyber attack affected city computer and phone systems. “The City was coerced into paying a $45,000 ransom to retrieve a ‘key’ to unlock encrypted data,” officials said. Read more on KDVR.
Canon hit by Maze Ransomware attack, 10TB data allegedly stolen
Lawrence Abrams reports: Canon has suffered a ransomware attack that impacts numerous services, including Canon’s email, Microsoft Teams, USA website, and other internal applications. BleepingComputer has been tracking a suspicious outage on Canon’s image.canon cloud photo and video storage service resulting in the loss of data for users of their free 10GB storage feature. Read…
Netwalker ransomware earned $25 million in just five months
Lawrence Abrams reports: The Netwalker ransomware operation has generated a total of $25 million in ransom payments since March 1st according to a new report by McAfee. Netwalker is a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operation that began operating in late 2019, where affiliates are enlisted to distribute the ransomware and infect victims in return for a 60-70% cut of ransom payments….
Cyber insurance: The moral quandary of paying criminals who stole your data
Asha Barbaschow reports: Earlier this year, a club with around 70,000 members found itself in a pickle: Pay a ransom or risk the personal information of those members being exposed. In this scenario, the club paid the ransomware. It was decided that the financial hit of paying outstripped the reputational harm to that business. They…
AU: Aged care operator’s resident data stolen and dumped in ransomware attack
Speaking of ransomware attacks in Australia, Emma Koehn reports: ASX-listed aged care operator Regis has been hit by an international cyber attack that has led to the release of sensitive personal data, adding to the woes of the company which is battling a coronavirus outbreak at one of its Melbourne centres. The $400 million operator…