Did a city’s IT Director stop a breach in progress or did he just interrupt a forensic investigation by a firm that had been hired but never identified to his office? Anna Skinner reports on what seems to be a case of Westfield officials either not communicating well with each other, or not trusting each…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
New destructive Meteor wiper malware used in Iranian railway attack
Lawrence Abrams reports: A new file wiping malware called Meteor was discovered used in the recent attacks against Iran’s railway system. Earlier this month, Iran’s transport ministry and national train system suffered a cyberattack, causing the agency’s websites to shut down and disrupting train service. The threat actors also displayed messages on the railway’s message boards…
NC: Sandhills Center remains silent after threat actors claim to have hacked them and exfiltrated 634 GB of their files
Update of September 4: Sandhills subsequently issued a press release that indicates that they could not confirm that the data came from them. See the follow-up report here. Original post: Sandhills Center in North Carolina manages public mental health, intellectual/developmental disabilities and substance use disorder services for the citizens of Anson, Guilford, Harnett, Hoke, Lee,…
The Life Cycle of a Breached Database
Brian Krebs writes: Every time there is another data breach, we are asked to change our password at the breached entity. But the reality is that in most cases by the time the victim organization discloses an incident publicly the information has already been harvested many times over by profit-seeking cybercriminals. Here’s a closer look…
McAfee: Babuk ransomware decryptor causes encryption ‘beyond repair’
Jonathan Greig reports that a new report from McAfee Advanced Threat Research gives horrible reviews to Babuk’s cross-platform binary — so horrible that not only should victims not pay them, but affiliates should avoid them. “It seems that Babuk has adopted live beta testing on its victims when it comes to its Golang binary and…
Biden Directs Agencies to Develop Cybersecurity Standards for Critical Infrastructure
Dustin Volz reports: WASHINGTON—President Biden on Wednesday issued a new directive instructing federal agencies to develop voluntary cybersecurity goals for companies that operate U.S. critical infrastructure, a move that came as senior officials said the administration was exploring the possibility of pursuing mandatory standards. Read more on WSJ. Related: Biden Moves to Reinforce Critical Infrastructure…