an unidentified hacker a $ 2,000 ransomAttack.Ransomto decrypt its computer system after a hackAttack.Databreachin late November that left some residents ' personal information exposedAttack.Databreach. Village President Richard Lartz said Thursday , Dec 7 , that the hack `` totally encrypted '' Nashotah 's computer files , making them inaccessible to staff . He said the only information that was exposedAttack.Databreachduring the breachAttack.Databreachwere citizens ' names and driver 's license numbers , and possibly their addresses . Social Security numbers and other sensitive information was not compromisedAttack.Databreach. `` The only information that got outAttack.Databreachwas voter rolls , '' Lartz said , emphasizing that neither he nor village staff know whether that information was used or dispersedAttack.Databreachby the hacker .
Hackers that tried to extort moneyAttack.Ransomfrom Disney by threatening to make public an upcoming movie ahead of its release date appear to have been bluffing , the firm ’ s boss has revealed . Chairman and CEO Bob Iger said the media giant had , to its knowledge , not been hacked . “ We had a threat of a hackAttack.Databreachof a movie being stolenAttack.Databreach. We decided to take it seriously but not react in the manner in which the person who was threatening us had required , ” he told Yahoo Finance . “ We don ’ t believe that it was real and nothing has happened. ” The hackers apparently demandedAttack.Ransoma large paymentAttack.Ransomin Bitcoin , and threatened to release five minutes of the stolen film followed by subsequent 20-minute instalments if their demandsAttack.Ransomweren ’ t met . Disney likely took the threat seriously given that a similar incident occurred last month when a hacker uploaded the upcoming series of Netflix prison drama Orange is the New Black to The Pirate Bay after the streaming giant refused to pay a ransomAttack.Ransom. In that case , a third-party production vendor used by the studios was to blame , after its security was compromised by the hacker . Iger acknowledged the elevation of cybersecurity to a “ front burner issue. ” “ Technology is an enabler to run our businesses more securely , whether that ’ s protecting our intellectual property or protecting our guests or employees around the world , ” he argued . Unfortunately , many boardrooms don ’ t share Iger ’ s enthusiasm for cybersecurity-related issues . Just 5 % of FTSE 100 companies claim to have a technology expert on the board , despite most of them ( 87 % ) identifying cybersecurity as a major risk to the firm , according to a recent Deloitte report . Yet cybersecurity is something the C-level need to get urgently up to speed with , as increasing numbers are targeted by whalers . Just this month , Barclays CEO Jes Staley was trickedAttack.Phishinginto emailing someone pretending to beAttack.Phishingthe bank ’ s chairman , John McFarlane .
No one likes to have their company hacked . No one is going to be happy if hackers manage to break into systems and stealAttack.Databreachaway their intellectual property . In the case of companies like Disney , having a $ 230 million blockbuster like the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie stolenAttack.Databreachcould prove to be very costly if hackers follow through with their threats to seed their pirated copy of the film on torrent sites , disrupting its official release . But imagine how much more galling it would be to give in to the hackers ’ blackmailAttack.Ransomthreats and pay a ransomAttack.Ransomfor the movie not to be leaked online , only to discover later that the extortionists never had a copy of the film in the first place ? Earlier this month it was widely reported that Walt Disney ’ s CEO Bob Iger had been contacted by hackers who were threatening to release one of the studio ’ s movies onto the internet unless a ransom was paidAttack.Ransom. Iger didn ’ t say what movie the hackers claimed to have stolenAttack.Databreach, but it was widely thought to be the soon to be released “ Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Men Tell No Tales. ” That theory of the hacked movie ’ s identity certainly gained more momentum when it was reported that torrents had been spotted on Pirate Bay claiming to be the blockbuster starring Johnny Depp , Javier Bardem and Geoffrey Rush . However , none of those downloadable torrents were confirmed to contain the “ Pirates of the Caribbean ” movie . And in a video interview with Yahoo Finance , Disney ’ s CEO debunked claims that a movie had ever been stolenAttack.Databreach: “ To our knowledge we were not hacked . We had a threat of a hackAttack.Databreachof a movie being stolenAttack.Databreach. We decided to take it seriously but not react in the manner in which the person who was threatening us had required . We don ’ t believe that it was real and nothing has happened. ” In short , Disney says that it was not accurate that a movie was ever stolenAttack.Databreach, and it refused to pay the ransom demandAttack.Ransomto the extortionists . And that , in itself , may be a lesson for other companies to keep a cool head when they receive an extortion demandAttack.Ransomclaiming that intellectual property or sensitive data has been stolenAttack.Databreachby hackers . Obviously all threats should be taken seriously , and you should explore appropriately whether it is possible a security breach has genuinely occurred , review the security of your systems , and inform law enforcement agencies as appropriate . But don ’ t be too quick to payAttack.Ransomthe criminals who are making threats against you . If you can , seek evidence that the hackers have what they claim to have , rather than reaching first for your wallets . It ’ s perfectly possible that some extortionists are simply jumping on the bandwagon of high profile hacks in an attempt to trick you into believing your company is the latest victim . Keep a cool head when your company receives a threat , or else you might find yourself in deep water , swimming with the hungry fishes .
WikiLeaks is postingAttack.Databreachthousands of files Tuesday the organization says detail the CIA ’ s efforts to surveil overseas targets by tapping otherwise ordinary devices that are connected to the Internet . The anti-secrecy group launched a “ new series of leaks , ” this time taking aim at the CIA ’ s Center for Cyber Intelligence , which falls under the agency ’ s Digital Innovation Directorate . The group maintains the CIA ’ s center lost control of its hacking arsenal , including malware , viruses , trojans , weaponized `` zero day '' exploits , malware remote control systems and associated documentation , and is posting what it calls the `` largest-ever publication of confidential documents on the agency . '' The dumpAttack.Databreachcomprises 8,761 documents and files from a network of the Center for Cyber Intelligence . A CIA spokeswoman declined to comment specifically . “ We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents , ” says Heather Fritz Horniak . The authenticity of the posted documents in links from the WikiLeaks site could not be independently verified . Last year , WikiLeaks disseminatedAttack.Databreachinternal email communications following a hackAttack.Databreach—purportedly aided by the Russian government—of the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign . The group says the Center for Cyber Intelligence's archive was circulated in an '' unauthorized manner '' among former U.S. government hackers and contractors , one of whom providedAttack.DatabreachWikiLeaks with portions of the archive . “ This extraordinary collection , which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code , gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA , ” WikiLeaks states . “ Once a single cyber 'weapon ' is 'loose ' it can spread around the world in seconds , to be used by rival states , cyber mafia and teenage hackers alike ” . The violation highlights critical shortcomings in personnel practices , the realities of insider threats and the lack of adequate controls , even within the intelligence community . `` It ’ s too easy for data to be stolenAttack.Databreach, even—allegedly—within the CIA ’ s Center for Cyber Intelligence , '' says Brian Vecci , technical evangelist at Varonis , a software company focused on data protection against insider threats , data breachesAttack.Databreachand ransomware attacksAttack.Ransom'' The entire concept of a spook is to be covert and undetectable ; apparently that also applies to actions on their own network . The CIA is not immune to issues affecting many organizations : too much access with too little oversight and detective controls . '' A Forrester study noted that more 90 percent of data security professionals experience challenges with data security , and 59 percent of organizations do not restrict access to files on a need-to know-basis , Vecci points out . `` In performing forensics on the actual breachAttack.Databreach, the important examination is to determine how 8,761 files just walked out ofAttack.Databreachone of the most secretive and confidential organizations in the world , '' he continues . `` Files that were once useful in their operations are suddenly lethal to those same operations . We call this toxic data , anything that is useful and valuable to an organization but once stolenAttack.Databreachand made public turns toxic to its bottom line and reputation . All you have to do is look at Sony , Mossack Fonseca and the DNC to see the effects of this toxic data conversion . `` Organizations need to get a grip on where their information assets are , who is using them , and who is responsible for them , '' Vecci concludes . They need to put all that data lying around in the right place , restrict access to it and monitor and analyze who is using it . '' Tuesday ’ s document dumpAttack.Databreachmirrors the one WikiLeaks carried out when it exposedAttack.Databreachcyber toolkits used by the National Security Agency , and frankly , is not that surprising of revelation at all , offers Richard Forno , assistant director at the University of Maryland , Baltimore County Center for Cybersecurity and director of the Cybersecurity Graduate Program . “ The big takeawayAttack.Databreachis that it shows the CIA is just as capable of operating in the cyberspace as the NSA , ” Forno says . The CIA ’ s cyber focus reinforces the idea that security in this domain is just as important as others for national security and solidifies the U.S. government ’ s commitment in the area , Forno offers . WikiLeaks contends that the CIA and its contractors developed malware and hacking tools for targeted surveillance efforts , tapping otherwise ordinary devices such as cellphones , computers , televisions and automobiles to spy on targets . Some cases involved CIA collaboration with the United Kingdom ’ s intelligence MI5/BTSS , WikiLeaks states . It maintains the CIA ’ s Mobile Devices Branch developed malware to penetrate cellphone securities and could be tapped to send CIA users ’ geolocation information , audio and text files and covertly activate the phones ’ cameras and microphones . “ These techniques permit the CIA to bypass the encryption of WhatsApp , Signal , Telegram , Wiebo , Confide and Cloackman by hackingAttack.Databreachthe ‘ smart ’ phones that they run on and collectingAttack.Databreachaudio and message traffic before encryption is applied , ” the group states .