Ben Coley reports: The Davidson County government’s ability to conduct business on computers has been stopped by a software virus known as ransomware, according to County Manager Zeb Hanner. Hanner said officials learned about the issue around 2 a.m. Friday. He noted that all the files are encrypted and that the hackers are asking for…
Category: Malware
UK and US blame Russia for ‘malicious’ NotPetya cyber-attack
BBC reports: The Russian military was directly behind a “malicious” cyber-attack on Ukraine that spread globally last year, the US and Britain have said. The White House said June’s NotPetya ransomware attack caused billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said Russia was “ripping up the…
NC: Coastal Cape Fear Eye Associates notifies patients after ransomware attack
On February 1, Coastal Cape Fear Eye Associates in North Carolina notified HHS of a hacking incident that impacted 925 patients. Unlike many other ransomware reports where there is no clear evidence of PHI acquisition or compromise, in this incident, there was evidence of actual compromise, although no evidence of exfiltration. Here is the entity’s…
One Plugin, Over 4,200 Victims – When Thousands of Government Websites Were Hijacked to Mine Monero
Rafia Shaikh reports: Thousands of websites around the world were targeted by cryptojackers over the weekend to mine Monero. The targets included websites run by the US and UK governments that were secretly hijacked by attackers to mine cryptocurrency using a compromised plugin, Browsealoud. Over 4,200 websites are in the victims list [link], including The City University of…
Voter, Bee databases hit with ransomware attack
Adam Ashton reports: Two Sacramento Bee databases on a third-party computer server were seized last month by an anonymous hacker who demanded The Bee pay a ransom in Bitcoin to get the data back. The intrusion, which was discovered by a Bee employee last week, exposed one database containing California voter registration data from the…
TN: Smith Dental notifies HHS of ransomware attack affecting 1,500
On January 22, Robert Smith, DMD, PC in Tennessee reported a breach to HHS. The report indicated that 1,500 patients were impacted by a hacking/IT incident involving their network. A Google search indicated that the practice was likely to be “Smith Dental” in Tennessee. But I could find no press release or statement on their…