Danny Palmer reports: Hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office software to spread a sophisticated form of malware capable of stealing credentials, dropping additional malware, cryptocurrency mining and conducting distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The malware has been active since 2016 and despite its powerful capabilities, it’s available to purchase on underground forums for as little…
Category: Malware
NM: City of Farmington recovering after SamSam ransomware attack
More entities are falling prey to SamSam ransomware. Hannah Grover reports: The city of Farmington is returning to normal after a variant of the ransomware known as SamSam shut down the computer systems. The virus encrypts files on a computer network or locks down the entire system. When people attempt to log on, they receive…
A second Indiana hospital reports ransomware attack
Another hospital has been hit with ransomware. Angelica Robinson reports that a second Indiana hospital has been hit with ransomware. Adams Health Network, which runs Adams Memorial Hospital, has confirmed that a ransomware attack targeted some of its computer servers on Thursday, January 11. Ransomware is a malicious software designed to block access to a computer…
Update on Jason’s Deli breach: 2 million impacted
There’s an update to the Jason’s Deli breach noted previously on this site. As of January 11, the firm posted on its site: On December 22, 2017, Jason’s Deli was notified by payment processors that credit card security personnel had informed it that a large quantity of payment card information had appeared for sale…
NC: Emotet malware compromised Rockingham County Schools servers after employees opened phishing emails
This report was published December 28, 2017, but I’m first seeing it today. Joe Dexter reports on the devastation Rockingham County Schools experienced after employees fell for a phishing email. The only good news, perhaps, was that personal information did not appear to have been acquired or exfiltrated: All it took was several downloads of…
Hancock Health pays $55,000 ransom after SamSam locked up 1400 files; no patient data stolen
Samm Quinn has an update on the Hancock Health ransomware incident first reported the other day. The hospital ultimately paid a $55,000 (4 BTC) ransom to regain access to its systems, because although it could restore from backup, it would have taken more time. The hackers targeted more than 1,400 files, the names of every…