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…
Category: Malware
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…
NZ health board hit with ransomware
Sophie Ryan reports: Whanganui District Health Board has been targeted by hackers who infected its computers with a “ransomware” attack. […] Whanganui District Health Board’s information and communications technology manager Barry Morris said the threat from Locky had been contained and no ransom was paid to the hackers. Read more on New Zealand Herald.
Spec’s Liquor Store Chain Suing Insurer Over 2014 Breach
And while we’re talking about data breach litigation…. In March, 2014, Spec’s Family Partners disclosed that 34 of its stores had been hit by a breach that exposed customer data from October 2012 through March 20, 2014. The “small percentage” of customers affected turned out to be approximately 550,000 customers and employees. Now Law360 is reporting…