Suzanne Smalley reports: The Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) is poised to become a stronger force in the second Trump administration and will finally operate as the executive branch cybersecurity policy lead that Congress envisioned when establishing it in 2021, experts say. President Donald Trump’s selection of Sean Cairncross to lead the office signals that…
Category: Miscellaneous
Bogus ‘BianLian’ Gang Sends Snail-Mail Extortion Letters
Elizabeth Montalbano reports: Someone claiming to represent the BianLian ransomware group is sending top executives from various organizations snail-mail extortion letters informing them that their IT network has been compromised and threatening to delete or leak sensitive company data. Sending physical letters through the mail system is an unusual move for a cybercriminal group, which typically sends…
Rite Aid Agrees to $6.8M Settlement Over Data Breach Lawsuit
Rihem Akkouche reports: In a dramatic legal turn, Rite Aid has consented to a $6.8 million settlement to resolve class action allegations that it failed to prevent a cyberattack compromising the sensitive information of over 2 million customers. The settlement, preliminarily approved by U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III on Tuesday, allows claimants to receive up to…
Hackers Claim Data Breach at Bulgaria’s Supreme Administrative Court
Novinite reports: The Ransomhouse hacker group has claimed responsibility for stealing data from the Supreme Administrative Court’s information systems. The group published documents, including lists of employee names, personal data, and leave applications, as evidence of the breach, according to cybersecurity website Questona. Along with the leaked documents, the hackers addressed the court’s management with a message urging them to make contact….
Dutch Police seizes 127 XHost servers, dismantles bulletproof hoster
Bill Toulas reports: The Dutch Police (Politie) dismantled the ZServers/XHost bulletproof hosting operation after taking offline 127 servers used by the illegal platform. Earlier this week, the authorities in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, announced sanctions against the same bulletproof hosting provider for its involvement in cybercrime operations. Specifically, the operators of Zservers were accused of…
The Art of the Deal? Bitcoin fraudster tied to 2016 hacking of Democrats is Russian released in exchange for U.S teacher
Mike Bedigan reports: A bitcoin money launderer, who prosecutors connected to the 2016 Russian interference in the U.S. election, has been released by Donald Trump in exchange for American school teacher Marc Fogel. Alexander Vinnik, 42, a Russian citizen, was charged in a 21-count superseding indictment in January 2017 and taken into custody in Greece. He was later extradited to the U.S….