AFP reports: Israel’s military said on Sunday it had thwarted an attempted malware attack by Hamas that sought to gain access to soldiers’ mobile phones by using seductive pictures of young women. The phones of a few dozen soldiers were affected, but the military “does not assess that there has been a substantial breach of…
1 in 6 Massachusetts Communities Hit by ‘Ransomware’ Attacks
Ryan Kath and Jim Haddadin report: Inside the Bay State, a handful of attacks against cities and towns have garnered widespread attention, though the problem may be more prevalent than many imagine. Records obtained by the NBC10 Boston Investigators show dozens of Massachusetts communities have quietly negotiated ransomware attacks, sometimes taking days or weeks to…
Inside Kenyan Hacker Group Gaining International Fame
Martin Siele reports: SilentCards, based in Nairobi, has previously been accused of orchestrating multi-million shilling heists in the financial services sector, particularly targeting banks and their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). Singapore-based cyber-security firm, Group-IB, in its annual Hi-Tech Crimes Report identified SilentCards as one of the prominent players in the global cyber-crime landscape. Read more on Kenyans.co.ke
UK: Redcar cyber-attack: Council using pen and paper
On February 14, Joe Tidy reported: More than 135,000 UK residents have been without online public services for nearly a week, as their council struggles with a cyber-attack. Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council’s website and all computers at the authority were attacked on Saturday. Read more on BBC.
Wise Health updates its breach notification of last summer
In July 2019, this site noted that Wise Health in Texas had notified HHS about a HIPAA breach impacting 35,899 patients. The report concerned a phishing incident in March, 2019 that was discovered in April, 2019. Last week, Wise Health issued another press release, reproduced below. At first blush, it might sound like a new…
TX: Port Lavaca City Hall won’t pay $200k ransom demand; working to recover from Ryuk attack
Samantha Douty reports: Port Lavaca City Hall’s server fell at the hands of the Russian ryuk virus last week. The city’s Mayor Jack Whitlow said city officials are scrubbing the servers of the virus to get their system back into working order. The city has already racked up a nearly $50,000 bill, most of which…