From Mandiant: UNC3944, which overlaps with public reporting on Scattered Spider, is a financially-motivated threat actor characterized by its persistent use of social engineering and brazen communications with victims. In early operations, UNC3944 largely targeted telecommunications-related organizations to support SIM swap operations. However, after shifting to ransomware and data theft extortion in early 2023, they…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Call for Public Input: Essential Cybersecurity Protections for K-12 Schools (2025-26 SY)
As posted at K12 SIX: The K12 SIX Technical Working Group is pleased to open a call for public input into the fourth annual update and revision to the K12 SIX Essential Cybersecurity Protections Series. The goal of the K12 SIX Essential Cybersecurity Protections is to communicate the most important defenses that K-12 school systems…
IT warning after 160-year-old firm goes into administration following a ransomware attack
Even though the media often mentions the risk of businesses folding due to a cyberattack, attempts to find examples of where a cyberattack really was the sole explanation/cause are often hard to find. Whether there were any other financial factors in the case reported here that contributed to the firm going into administration is unknown…
Negotiations with the Akira ransomware group: an ill-advised approach
@Chum1ng0 took a look at four victims of Akira and what happened in terms of negotiations or not. In translation: After a detailed analysis, we identified four chats from different companies that attempted to communicate with Akira after being attacked. Some of these companies were still listed as victims on the group’s website. Days after…
HHS OCR Settles HIPAA Ransomware Cybersecurity Investigation with Comprehensive Neurology, PC
Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a settlement with Comprehensive Neurology, PC (Comprehensive), a small New York neurology practice, concerning a potential violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule. The settlement resolves an OCR investigation of a ransomware…
FBI IC3, Verizon DBIR, Google M-Trends reports are out—here’s the conclusions!
Catalin Cimpanu writes: There are a handful of seminal reports in the cybersecurity industry, and lo and behold, three of them were released on Wednesday. Mandiant’s team, now part of Google Cloud, released M-Trends, Verizon released its Data Breach Investigations Report (aka DBIR), and the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its yearly Internet Crime Report [PDF]. All…