Catalin Cimpanu reports: The University of Utah revealed today that it paid a ransomware gang $457,059 in order to avoid having hackers leak student information online. The incident is the latest in a long string of ransomware attacks where criminal groups steal sensitive files from the hacked companies before encrypting their files; and in case…
Category: Malware
FritzFrog and Lucifer Monero malware botnets putting more at risk
Jai Pratap reports: According to a study by Guardicore Labs, a Monero malware botnet known as FritzFrog has been deployed to ten millions of IP addresses. The malware has largely targeted governmental offices, educational institutions, medical centers, banks, and telecommunication companies, installing a Monero mining app known as XMRig. The study explains that FritzFrog uses a brute-force…
OK: Ponca City Public Schools Address Cyber Attack
It’s nice to see a school district report that they had a usable backup to restore from following a ransomware attack. Katelyn Ogle reports Ponca City Schools may not be able to restore all of their data, but they are recovering from the attack. Superintendent Arrott said the district discovered ransomware criminals attacked PowerSchool, the…
Medical Debt Collection Firm R1 RCM Hit in Ransomware Attack
Brian Krebs reports: R1 RCM Inc. [NASDAQ:RCM], one of the nation’s largest medical debt collection companies, has been hit in a ransomware attack. Formerly known as Accretive Health Inc., Chicago-based R1 RCM brought in revenues of $1.18 billion in 2019. The company has more than 19,000 employees and contracts with at least 750 healthcare organizations nationwide. Read…
For six months, security researchers have secretly distributed an Emotet vaccine across the world
Catalin Cimpanu reports on a rare bit of good news on the malware front, although the threat actors appear to have gotten the upper hand again: In the cyber-security industry, there’s a very dangerous moral line when it comes to exploiting bugs in malware, a line many security companies won’t cross, fearing they might end…
Jack Daniel’s Manufacturer Was Target of Apparent Ransomware Attack
Jordan Robertson reports: Brown-Forman Corp., a manufacturer of alcoholic beverages including Jack Daniel’s and Finlandia, said it was hit by a cyber-attack in which some information, including employee data, may have been impacted. The company, which is based in Louisville, Kentucky, said in a statement it was able to prevent its systems from being encrypted,…