Maria Rivera reports that a number of Spanish agencies were hit in what appears to be a synchronized attack involving malware injections. The attacks do not seem to have caused major service interruptions or problems, however: A cyber attack has hit the websites of the National Statistics Institute (INE) and different ministries such as those…
Al: Election Data Breach Story Renews Press Freedom Debate in Albania
Mimoza Picari and Keida Kostreci report: First came the news that the personal data of over 900,000 Albanians might be in the hands of party officials. Then came the news that the journalists who broke the story had been ordered by an anti-corruption court to hand over devices, including computers and cellphones. As Albania heads to…
UK: Hundreds of furious Football Index investors have their identities revealed by DCMS email gaffe
Daniel Davis reports: The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have been embroiled in a sizeable data breach after an email sent out to hundreds of furious Football Index customers did not hide their identities. The government were contacted by a large number of investors in the wake of the collapse of the online…
A ransomware gang made $260,000 in 5 days using the 7zip utility
Lawrence Abrams reports: A ransomware gang has made $260,000 in just five days simply by remotely encrypting files on QNAP devices using the 7zip archive program. Starting on Monday, QNAP NAS users from all over the world suddenly found their files encrypted after a ransomware operation called Qlocker exploited vulnerabilities on their devices. While most ransomware groups…
Es: A cyber attack affected the city council of Xixona
The municipality of Jijona/Xixona in Spain has issued a notice about a cyberattack, but there are not many details. The notice on their web site, posted on April 23, says that the attack has seriously crippled city services (translated): The technicians are trying to reset the computer system and we hope we can fix it…
Emotet malware forcibly removed today by German police update
Sergiu Gatlan reports: Emotet, one of the most dangerous email spam botnets in recent history, is being uninstalled today from all infected devices with the help of a malware module delivered in January by law enforcement. The botnet’s takedown is the result of an international law enforcement action that allowed investigators to take control of the…