In 2020, those of us who report on ransomware attacks witnessed what some described as a “charm offensive” — spokespeople for ransomware groups granting interviews to journalists in which the threat actors tried to make themselves sound like professionals who have an ethics code and who are just trying to provide for their families. Those…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
City of Dallas calls IT protocols ‘inadequate’ in 131-page report on police data loss
Ryan Osborne reports: Dallas’ city information technology department sent a 131-page report to city council on Thursday, detailing the massive data loss involving police records earlier this year and attributing the issue to “inadequate” protocols among IT staff. The report confirmed that 22 terabytes of data, involving more than 8 million records, were deleted in…
Why doesn’t Ohio notify victims of unemployment fraud or allow residents to check if they’ve been scammed?
Why doesn’t Ohio notify victims of unemployment fraud or allow residents to check if they’ve been scammed? It’s a reasonable question, and I doubt you’ll like the state’s answer.
Here are four ransomware groups that businesses need to watch out for
AMEinfo points readers to a new report by Unit 42 that covers AvosLocker, Hive, HelloKitty, and LockBit2.0 ransomware groups. You can read their summary here and access the full report here.
Biden administration to convene 30 countries to crack down on ransomware threat
Sean Lyngaas reports: The White House will convene a 30-country meeting this month to try to ramp up global efforts to address the threat of ransomware to economic and national security, President Joe Biden said in a statement shared exclusively with CNN. “Cyber threats affect the lives and livelihoods of American families and businesses,” national security adviser…
FCC to work on rules to prevent SIM swapping attacks
Catalin Cimpanu reports: The Federal Communications Commission announced today plans to introduce new rules for US mobile carriers to address the rising wave of SIM swapping and port-out fraud attacks. The two attacks, while they have different names, are closely related. Both take place when mobile carriers fail to properly verify a customer’s identity when…