There’s an update to the case involving a member of FIN7. Three members of the group had been taken into custody in 2018 and their alleged ringleader pleaded guilty in 2020 A Ukrainian national was sentenced today in the Western District of Washington to seven years in prison for his role in the criminal work…
Category: Of Note
Russian security chief says Moscow will work with U.S. to find hackers
Reuters reports: Russia will work with the United States to track down cyber criminals, the head of the FSB security service said on Wednesday, a week after U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to increase cooperation in certain areas. “We will work together (on locating hackers) and hope for reciprocity,” the…
Norway says Chinese group APT31 is behind catastrophic 2018 government hack
Catalin Cimpanu reports: Norway’s police secret service said this week that APT31, a cyber-espionage group operating on behalf of China, was responsible for a 2018 breach of the government’s IT network. According to the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), the 2018 hack was as bad as it could get. “The investigation revealed that the actor…
50,000 security disasters waiting to happen: The problem of America’s water supplies
Kevin Collier reports: On Jan. 15, a hacker tried to poison a water treatment plant that served parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. It didn’t seem hard. The hacker had the username and password for a former employee’s TeamViewer account, a popular program that lets users remotely control their computers, according to a private report…
State Legislatures Consider Bans on Ransomware Payments
Emily Poole of Alston & Bird writes: As ransomware attacks continue to dominate the news cycle, legislation has recently been introduced in several states that would place limits on certain entities’ ability to pay a ransom payment in the event of a ransomware attack. Although the proposed limits would generally apply to state agencies and…
For hacked companies, paying a ransom may not work: Many say they paid but were attacked again
Hiawatha Bray reports: To pay or not to pay? For organizations victimized by ransomware, that’s a tricky question that may not have a good answer. A report from the Boston tech security firm Cybereason argues that paying off cybercriminals may not get businesses off the hook. In a global survey of nearly 1,300 security professionals, two-thirds said…