James Coker reports: Cybersecurity awareness training company KnowBe4 has revealed it was duped into hiring a fake IT worker from North Korea, resulting in attempted insider threat activity. The malicious activity was identified and prevented before any illegal access was gained or any data was compromised on KnowBe4 systems. In a blog published on July 23,…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Ransomware ecosystem fragmenting, but not necessarily great news
Alexander Martin reports: Veteran cybercriminals involved in ransomware attacks are increasingly shying away from large ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) platforms following a spate of law enforcement disruption operations, as well as the AlphV/BlackCat gang’s high-profile exit scam, according to officials and industry experts. Organized online crime groups are attempting to reduce their dependence on RaaS services by developing…
Suffolk County cyberattack recovery costs hit $25M; final tab still being tallied
Remember how Suffolk County in New York had decided cyberinsurance was too expensive and how they got hit with a ransomware attack by AlphV in 2022. The county not only had no insurance, but it had no cyberattack recovery plan. Mark Harrington reports another update on that incident: Suffolk County approved more than $25…
Hacked in 2022, Dell & Dean law firm first notifying affected clients now
From DataBreaches’ “Now what does THIS mean?” file, a notification letter from Dell & Dean PLLC, a law firm in New York. On July 17, Dell & Dean’s external counsel notified the Maine Attorney General’s Office about a breach in September 2022 that affected 6,803 people. A copy of the firm’s notification letter was appended…
‘GhostEmperor’ returns: Mysterious Chinese hacking group spotted for first time in two years
Alexander Martin reports: An elusive and highly covert Chinese hacking group tracked as GhostEmperor — notorious for its sophisticated supply-chain attacks targeting telecommunications and government entities in Southeast Asia — has been spotted for the first time in more than two years. And according to the researchers, the group has gotten even better at evading…
Shame on Interserver.net for not responding to notification of exposed sensitive and stolen data
Shame on Interserver.net. On July 10, DataBreaches notified hostdepartment.com by email that an IP address was exposing hundreds of data leaks/dumps that had been caught up in hacking or ransomware incidents. When they didn’t respond, I called them the next day. They asked me to resubmit the abuse alert to interserver.net. I promptly did that…