Aaron Leibowitz reports: Hackers stole the encryption key to a software system at the Melrose Police Station on Thursday evening, compelling the department to pay the hackers one Bitcoin to regain control, Chief Michael Lyle told the Free Press on Monday. The attack came in the form of an email sent to the entire department…
Category: Malware
Los Angeles County health department targeted in ransomware attack
Abby Sewell reports that Los Angeles County Department of Health Services computers were hit with a ransomware attack just days after a similar attack on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. The attack was on a smaller scale and the county did not pay any ransom. Nor, it seems, did they need to. Spokesman Michael Wilson said the agency…
Computer hacker extradited from Cyprus to Pittsburgh to face charges
First they caught the botnet administrator in Cyprus. Then they extradited him to Pittsburgh. Andrew Conte reports: Andrey Ghinkul, of Moldova, is scheduled to appear at 2 p.m. at the U.S. Courthouse, Downtown. He plans to plead not guilty, his lawyer, Arkady Bukh of New York City, told the Tribune-Review. Ghinkul will be represented by a public defender…
RubberStamps.net, Incipio notify customers of breaches
While uKnowKids had a somewhat despicable disclosure of their breach that involved shooting the messenger, here are two positive examples of breach disclosures I came across this week: RubberStamps.net notified about 7,000 customers that its web site was compromised between November 3, 2015 to December 11, 2015. In a well-written letter, Scott Lee, the President and CEO, Superior Labels, Inc. explained that…
Thieves Are Using Ransomware Programs to ‘Kidnap’ People’s Data Until They Pay
John Dyer has a report on ransomware with some interesting statistics: An October study by Cisco Systems’ Talos security unit estimated that unnamed hackers using Angler Exploit — just one of a handful of commonly used ransomware bugs — netted $60 million annually. In December, a Kaspersky Lab report found that ransomware infections doubled last year compared to 2014….
Hackers hold German hospital data hostage
DW reports that the ransomware problem we’ve seen here and in Australia has also hit German hospitals: It probably came down to a swift response that averted major damage in the Lukas Hospital in Germany’s western city of Neuss. One morning, hospital staff noticed the system wasn’t running smoothly anymore. There were error messages popping…