Joseph Menn and Christopher Bing broke the news yesterday: The ransomware group REvil was itself hacked and forced offline this week by a multi-country operation, according to three private sector cyber experts working with the United States and one former official. …. “The FBI, in conjunction with Cyber Command, the Secret Service and like-minded countries,…
Category: Of Note
Suspected Chinese hackers behind attacks on ten Israeli hospitals
Bill Toulas reports: A joint announcement from the Ministry of Health and the National Cyber Directorate in Israel describes a spike in ransomware attacks over the weekend that targeted the systems of nine health institutes in the country. In the joint announcement, the Israeli government states that the attempts resulted in no damage to the hospitals…
US Treasury said it tied $5.2 billion in BTC transactions to ransomware payments
Catalin Cimpanu reports: The financial crimes investigation unit of the US Treasury Department, also known as FinCEN, said today it identified approximately $5.2 billion in outgoing Bitcoin transactions potentially tied to ransomware payments. FinCEN officials said the figure was compiled by analyzing 2,184 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed by US financial institutions over the last…
“Shoot the Messenger,” Friday edition: Homewood Health resorts to threats and a court order?
In July of this year, CTV News in Canada and DataBreaches.net reported on a breach involving Homewood Health in Canada. Both CTV and this site had become aware of the breach when data allegedly from Homewood showed up on a leak site called Marketo. Marketo claimed to have almost 300 GB of Homewood’s data for…
US govt reveals three more ransomware attacks on water treatment plants this year
Catalin Cimpanu reports: Ransomware gangs have silently hit three US water and wastewater treatment facilities this year, in 2021, the US government said in a joint cybersecurity advisory published today by the FBI, NSA, CISA, and the EPA. The attacks —which had been previously unreported— took place in March, July, and August and hit facilities in Nevada,…
K–12 Cybersecurity Act Signed into Law
David Nagel reports: On Friday, Oct. 8, President Biden signed the K–12 Cybersecurity Act of 2021 into law. The act comes in response to growing data security incidents impacting K–12 schools in recent years, including a dramatic rise in ransomware and other forms of malware. On its own, the legislation is fairly simple: It authorizes the director of…