Catalin Cimpanu reports: A Romanian man and woman are accused of hacking into the outdoor surveillance system deployed by Washington DC police, which they used to distribute ransomware. The two suspects are named Mihai Alexandru Isvanca and Eveline Cismaru, Romanian nationals, both arrested last week by Romanian authorities part of Operation Bakovia that culminated with…
Category: Malware
Romania arrests five suspected members of major ransomware gang
A press release from Europol earlier today: During the last week, Romanian authorities have arrested three individuals who are suspected of infecting computer systems by spreading the CTB-Locker (Curve-Tor-Bitcoin Locker) malware – a form of file-encrypting ransomware. Two other suspects from the same criminal group were arrested in Bucharest in a parallel ransomware investigation linked…
Encryption protected Golden Optometric patients’ EHR from CrySiS attack
It’s nice to read a notification where an entity had good defenses in place. Consider this notification from Golden Optometric in California: Early on the morning of November 6, 2017, the network server at Golden Optometric was infected with a variant of the “CrySiS” ransomware virus, which encrypted a limited number of files on its…
U.S. claims North Korea was responsible for WannaCry
Thomas P. Bossert, who is an assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, writes: Cybersecurity isn’t easy, but simple principles still apply. Accountability is one, cooperation another. They are the cornerstones of security and resilience in any society. In furtherance of both, and after careful investigation, the U.S. today publicly attributes the massive “WannaCry”…
500 Stanislaus County computers from mental health department quarantined after ransomware detected on network
Ken Carlson reports on Modesto Bee: Stanislaus County’s mental health department was the target of a ransomware attack that disabled its computers this week. About 500 computers in county Behavioral Health and Recovery Services were compromised by the cyberattack Tuesday, according to a press release issued Friday. It appears that the county will not be paying…
East Texas area school officials: Scope of computer breach still unclear
Meredith Shamburger provides an update to a previously reported incident: More than a week after several East Texas school districts were notified of a computer security breach that exposed personal information, officials say they still don’t know how many of their students have been affected. The Texas Department of Agriculture notified nine area districts that…