The government issued a warning this week reminding people that threat actors are likely to attack when entities are short-staffed due to weekends or holidays. Brett Callow posted an interesting graphic on Twitter that may help drive that point home: “What did you do last weekend, Mrs Ransomware Criminal?” “Oh, not much. I was busy…
Category: Malware
US farm loses $9 million in the aftermath of a ransomware attack
Catalin Cimpanu reports: A US farm lost a whopping $9 million due to a temporary shutdown of its farming operations following a ransomware attack earlier this year; the FBI said this week. The incident, which took place in January 2021 after hackers gained access to the farm’s internal network through compromised admin credentials, is part…
15-Year-Old Malware Proxy Network VIP72 Goes Dark
Brian Krebs reports: Over the past 15 years, a cybercrime anonymity service known as VIP72 has enabled countless fraudsters to mask their true location online by routing their traffic through millions of malware-infected systems. But roughly two weeks ago, VIP72’s online storefront — which ironically enough has remained at the same U.S.-based Internet address for more than…
Career Group, Inc. notifies more than 49,000 after paying ransom to threat actors
I haven’t seen any mention of this in news or on their web site, but Career Group Inc. suffered a ransomware attack recently and is notifying those impacted. In a copy of the notification submitted to the Maine Attorney General’s Office, they report that on July 2, Career Group Companies detected potential unauthorized access to…
Sturdy Hospital in Attleboro sued over data breach
George W. Rhodes reports: A class action lawsuit has been filed against Sturdy Memorial Hospital alleging it failed to properly protect personal patient information that was stolen in a ransomware attack earlier this year. […] “Defendant maintained and secured the PII (personally identifiable information) in negligent manner by failing to safeguard against ransomware attacks,” the…
A holiday is coming, which means you may be more likely to be hit with a ransomware attack. Read the government’s advice.
It’s not really news that attackers may attack over a weekend when there are fewer IT people working to detect and respond to attacks. That’s also true for ransomware attacks. Read the government’s new advisory and see if you can implement or prepare better for the possibility of a ransomware attack. Immediate Actions You Can…