James Pearson and Christopher Bing reports: A Russian hacking team known as Cold River targeted three nuclear research laboratories in the United States this past summer, according to internet records reviewed by Reuters and five cyber security experts. Between August and September, as President Vladimir Putin indicated Russia would be willing to use nuclear weapons to defend…
Category: Of Note
Romanian hospital victim of ransomware attack
Radu Dumitrescu reports: The Saint Gheorghe Recovery Hospital in Botoşani, in northeastern Romania, was the target of a ransomware attack in December, and medical activity is still impacted. Hackers demanded 3 Bitcoin for the decryption of the data on the servers. The attack is similar to the one in the summer of 2019, when four…
HC3: Analyst Note: Pro-Russian Hacktivist Group ‘KillNet’ Threat to HPH Sector
December 22, 2022 TLP:CLEAR Report: 202212221500 Executive Summary HC3 is closely tracking hacktivist groups which have previously affected a wide range of countries and industries, including the United States Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) sector. One of these hacktivist groups—dubbed ‘KillNet’—recently targeted a U.S. organization in the healthcare industry. The group is known to launch…
Why Do Ransomware Victims Pay for Data Deletion Guarantees?
Mathew J. Schwartz reports: Many ransomware-wielding attackers are expert at preying on their victims’ compulsion to clean up the mess. Hence victims often face a menu of options: Pay a ransom for a decryptor, and you’ll be able to unlock forcibly encrypted data. Pay more, and your name gets deleted from the list of victims…
New Data Quantifies Ransomware Attacks on Healthcare Providers
Hannah Neprash and Alan Z. Rozenshtein write: In a new JAMA Health Forum Original Investigation, we and our co-authors address this data gap. We have created the Tracking Healthcare Ransomware Events and Traits (THREAT) database, a comprehensive accounting of 374 ransomware attacks on U.S. healthcare delivery organizations from 2016-2021. To assemble this database we used…
Are Data Breach Class Action Lawsuits Protecting Patients?
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee reports: The prospect of class action lawsuits being filed in the aftermath of a major data breach often has more impact on breached healthcare organizations than the potential for fines and enforcement actions by government regulators, says attorney Jeff Westerman of Westerman Law Corp. With all the legal expenses and time involved…