Technical Details Overview First seen in July 2021, BlackMatter is ransomware-as-a-service (Raas) tool that allows the ransomware’s developers to profit from cybercriminal affiliates (i.e., BlackMatter actors) who deploy it against victims. BlackMatter is a possible rebrand of DarkSide, a RaaS which was active from September 2020 through May 2021. BlackMatter actors have attacked numerous U.S.-based…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
DOJ Announces New Cyber-Fraud Initiative Promoting False Claims Act Enforcement Against Contractors and Grantees Failing to Follow Cybersecurity Standards
Anthony Mirenda, Stephen Garvey, and Natalie Panariello of Foley Hoag write: As we anticipated last spring, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has signaled that it will utilize civil enforcement of the False Claims Act (FCA) to address new and emerging cybersecurity threats. On October 6, 2021, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the launch of a new…
REvil ransomware shuts down again after Tor sites were hijacked
Lawrence Abrams reports: The REvil ransomware operation has likely shut down once again after an unknown person hijacked their Tor payment portal and data leak blog. The Tor sites went offline earlier today, with a threat actor affiliated with the REvil operation posting to the XSS hacking forum that someone hijacked the gang’s domains. Read…
Adult students’ SSNs from more than 60 years ago caught up in Ohio breach
One of the recurring themes in this site’s blog posts this year has been the fact that way too many entities not only store old data, but fail to secure it or protect it adequately from malware attacks or other attacks. Today’s unhappy example comes to us from Apollo Career Center (“Apollo”), an adult education…
US Treasury said it tied $5.2 billion in BTC transactions to ransomware payments
Catalin Cimpanu reports: The financial crimes investigation unit of the US Treasury Department, also known as FinCEN, said today it identified approximately $5.2 billion in outgoing Bitcoin transactions potentially tied to ransomware payments. FinCEN officials said the figure was compiled by analyzing 2,184 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed by US financial institutions over the last…
Quebec’s Bill 64 Introduces Unique Cyber Incident Reporting Obligations
Charles S. Morgan, Ellen Yifan Chen, and Philippe April of McCarthy Tétrault LLP write: The Act to Modernize Legislative Provisions respecting the Protection of Personal Information (“Bill 64” or the “Bill”)[1] received royal assent on September 22, 2021, introducing new obligations for private sector businesses in Québec phased over the course of three years. […] it is important…