Walt Hunter reports: The FBI, New Jersey State Police, county and local investigators are on the trail of hackers who hijacked a Gloucester County school’s district’s computer network, demanding a ransom payment to make it usable again. The Superintendent of the Swedesboro-Woolwich School District says the unidentified hackers are demanding a payment of 500 bitcoins,…
Search Results for: ransomware
Assuring Authority for Courts to Shut Down Botnets – DOJ Blog
Leslie R. Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice writes about the government’s proposal to expand its powers to shut down botnets: Current law gives federal courts the authority to issue injunctions to stop the ongoing commission of specified fraud crimes or illegal wiretapping, by authorizing actions that prevent a…
Hackers lock up thousands of Australian computers, demand ransom
Ben Grubb reports: Thousands of Australian computers are being locked up by hackers using malicious software that encrypts files and asks for a ransom to make them available again. Fairfax Media understands Australian government agencies and a number of large enterprises and individuals have been successfully targeted by the scam. Called “Cryptolocker” and “CryptoWall”, the…
Russian Charged With Running $100 Million Data Theft Plot
Sophia Pearson reports: An accused Russian hacker faces U.S. charges over his suspected development of malicious computer software that cybercriminals used to steal more than $100 million from businesses and consumers since 2011. Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev, 30, ran a criminal ring responsible for Gameover Zeus and Cryptolocker, a form of malware known as ransomware, the…
More than 1,400 Financial institutions in 88 Countries targeted by Banking Trojan in 2013
Swati Khandelwal writes: As the year draws to a close, we have seen the number of emerging threats like advance phishing attacks from the Syrian Electronic Army, financial malware and exploit kits, Cryptolocker ransomware infections, massive Bitcoin theft, extensive privacy breach from NSA and many more. The financial malware’s were the most popular threat this year….
AU: Hackers steal physio clinic files
Jessica Elder reports on another case of ransomware and an extortion demand affecting a health facility in Australia: A Mermaid Waters physiotherapy clinic is the second medical practice on the Gold Coast to be held to ransom by an international hacker demanding $5000 to unlock patient files. The scam, which has affected businesses across the…