Jordan Robertson and Riley Griffin report: On March 15, 2020, just days after the US declared a national emergency because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the computer network for the US Department of Health and Human Services briefly vanished from the internet. In public remarks the following day, HHS Secretary Alex Azar attributed the 10-minute outage to a cyberattack but…
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FCC adopts new rules to protect consumers from SIM-swapping attacks
Sergiu Gatlan reports: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has revealed new rules to shield consumers from criminals who hijack their phone numbers in SIM swapping attacks and port-out fraud. FCC’s Privacy and Data Protection Task Force introduced the new regulations in July. They are geared toward thwarting scammers who seek to access personal data and information…
NoEscape gang continues to use DDoS to pressure reluctant victims to negotiate
Over on SuspectFile, Marco A. De Felice reports that the NoEscape ransomware gang is threatening to release 1.5 TB of data from PruittHealth Network. De Felice was unable to obtain any statements or responses from either PruittHealth or the threat actors, but notes that the threat actors claim to have attacked Pruitt on November 13…
Alleged Extortioner of Psychotherapy Patients Faces Trial
Brian Krebs reports: Prosecutors in Finland this week commenced their criminal trial against Julius Kivimäki, a 26-year-old Finnish man charged with extorting a once popular and now-bankrupt online psychotherapy practice and thousands of its patients. In a 2,200-page report, Finnish authorities laid out how they connected the extortion spree to Kivimäki, a notorious hacker who was convicted…
NoEscape gang adds two more medical entities to their leak site
The NoEscape ransomware gang claims to have attacked two more medical entities. The first one is Southeastern Orthopaedic Specialists, P.A. in North Carolina. According to the threat actors, the network was locked on October 25, and 3 GB of files were exfiltrated. From the expanded listing (not shown here), it also appears that Southeastern…
UK: Nearly £2 million of stolen cryptocurrency to be paid back to victims
An interesting press release from the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU): Around £1.9 million worth of stolen cryptocurrency is to be paid back to victims of theft as a result of work by the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU). On 27 January this year, 40-year-old Wybo Wiersma, of Het Weike, Goredijk,…