David Bol reports: Scotland’s auditor general has revealed that a huge cyber attack on the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) was carried out after “human error” allowed criminals to access systems. Sepa suffered a huge ransomware attack on Christmas Eve in 2020 which led to around 1.2GB of data, amounting to at least 4,000 files,…
Category: Non-U.S.
NetWalker ransomware affiliate sentenced to 80 months in prison
Sergiu Gatlan reports an update to the prosecution of a Canadian NetWalker affiliate. The NetWalker site was seized in January, 2021, and at the same time, the U.S. announced the indictment of Vachon-Desjardins. Although they sought his extradition to the U.S., it appears that he pleaded guilty in Canada to charges stemming from crimes involving…
Cyberattack brings down Vodafone Portugal mobile, voice, and TV services
Catalin Cimpanu reports: Vodafone Portugal said today that a large chunk of its customer data services went offline overnight following “a deliberate and malicious cyberattack intended to cause damage and disruption.” The company’s 4G and 5G mobile networks, along with fixed voice, television, SMS, and voice/digital answering services are still offline following the attack. Read…
Microsoft Details Malware Attacks on Ukrainian Organizations
Lindsey O’Donnell-Welch reports: A known Russia-linked threat group has been targeting an array of organizations in Ukraine – including government, military, law enforcment, non-profit and judiciary entities – in an attempt to steal sensitive data. Microsoft detailed several malware campaigns over the past six months by the Actinium threat group (also known as Gamaredon or…
Ethical hackers face tough sanction under Jamaican law
From the threats-to-ethical-hacking-and-a-free-press department, Edmond Campbell reports: Ethical hackers who find vulnerabilities on government or private websites in Jamaica could face a $3-million fine and three-year prison sentence if a provision in the Cybercrimes Act, 2015, remains and receives the nod from Parliament. That threat could penalise actors such as Zack Whittaker, the security editor at…
More than half of Canadian ransomware victims paid the ransom demands in 2021 – study
TORONTO, Febr. 7, 2022 /CNW/ – Canadian IT company, NOVIPRO, today unveiled its sixth annual IT Portrait of Canadian Businesses in collaboration with Leger, which revealed the deep vulnerability of Canadian companies to computer attacks. The study reveals that more than half (56%) of organizations targeted by malware have paid the amounts requested by cybercriminals. Of these,…