Jen Easterly, Director of CISA, tweeted: In early May 2023, a group self-identifying as the Bl00dy Ransomware Gang was observed attempting to exploit vulnerable PaperCut servers at educational institutions. Read our joint advisory with @FBI and apply patches or workarounds today: http://go.dhs.gov/4sz The advisory is embedded below:
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Ransomware Encryption Rates Reach New Heights
Weren’t we reading something a while back about how some ransomware groups were no longer locking files and were just exfiltrating? Phil Muncaster reports a recent study says the rate of locking is higher than ever. The share of ransomware victims whose data was encrypted by their extorters grew to 76% over the past year,…
Half of North Korean missile program funded by cyberattacks and crypto theft, White House says
Sean Lyngaas reports: About half of North Korea’s missile program has been funded by cyberattacks and cryptocurrency theft, a White House official said Tuesday. A sweeping US federal government effort is ongoing to understand how “a country like [North Korea] is so darn creative in this space,” Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging…
Za: Department of justice negligence leads to huge personal data loss
Rorisang Kgosana reports: The department of justice & constitutional development contravened the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act, resulting in the loss of more than 1,200 files. The Information Regulator issued an enforcement notice to the department this week for a September 2021 security breach on its IT systems. […] The security breach was caused…
Cyberattacks a Problem for Nearby Emergency Departments, Too
Michael DePeau-Wilson writes: A ransomware attack at one healthcare system had a significant impact on two neighboring emergency departments (EDs) that weren’t targeted in the attack, researchers found. Daily mean ED volume rose 15.1% at the two facilities, from 218.4 in the pre-attack period to 251.4 in the attack period (P<0.001), Christian Dameff, MD, MS, of…
Big Game Hunting is back despite decreasing Ransom Payment Amounts
Coveware’s Q1 report for 2023: Midway through Q1 the winds of progress shifted, and we observed a material increase in attacks on large enterprises that achieved levels of impact that we had not observed since before the Colonial Pipeline attack in May 2021. In 2019 and 2020 it was fairly common to see large enterprises…