Hackers logged into the hospital ’ s remote access portal using a third-party vendor ’ s username and password . Greenfield , Indiana-based Hancock Health paid Attack.Ransom hackers 4 bitcoin or about $ 47,000 to unlock its network on Saturday , after the health system fell victim to a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom on Thursday night . Hackers compromised Attack.Databreach a third-party vendor ’ s administrative account to the hospital ’ s remote-access portal and launched SamSam ransomware . The virus infected a number of the hospital ’ s IT system and , according to local reports , the malware targeted over 1,400 files and changed the name of each to “ I ’ m sorry. ” Hancock officials followed its incident response and crisis management plan and contacted legal representation and outside security firm immediately following the discovery of the attack . Hospital leadership also contacted the FBI for advisory assistance . The incident was contained by Friday and officials said the next focus was recovery . Hancock Health was given just seven days to pay the ransom Attack.Ransom . While officials said Hancock could have recovered the affected files from backups , it would have taken days or possibly weeks to do so . And it would have been more expensive . “ We were in a very precarious situation at the time of the attack , ” Hancock Health CEO Steve Long said in a statement . “ With the ice and snow storm at hand , coupled with one of the worst flu seasons in memory , we wanted to recover our systems in the quickest way possible and avoid extending the burden toward other hospitals of diverting patients . Restoring from backup was considered , though we made the deliberate decision to pay the ransom Attack.Ransom to expedite our return to full operations. ” Hackers released the files early Saturday after they retrieved the bitcoins . The hospital ’ s critical systems were restored to normal function on Monday . The forensic analysis found patient data was not transferred Attack.Databreach outside of the hospital ’ s network , and the FBI confirmed the motivation for SamSam hackers is ransom payment Attack.Ransom , not to harvest Attack.Databreach patient data . The virus did not impact any equipment used to treat patients . However , the hospital ’ s patient portal was down during the security incident . After recovery , officials asked employees to reset passwords and implemented a security feature that could detect similar attacks in the future . The breach Attack.Databreach should serve as a wake-up call that ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom can happen . However , it ’ s important to note the FBI , the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a laundry list of security experts have long stressed that organizations should not pay ransoms Attack.Ransom to hackers . While the hackers returned the files to Hancock , there was no guarantee that would happen . For example , Kansas Heart Hospital paid a ransom Attack.Ransom in May 2016 , and the hackers kept the files and demanded another payment Attack.Ransom . The hospital declined to pay Attack.Ransom a second time . Secondly , when an organization pays Attack.Ransom , hackers place the business on a list of those willing to pay the ransom Attack.Ransom and can expect to be hit Attack.Ransom again in the future . “ There are lists out there , if you pay once , you may end up having to pay again because you ’ ve been marked as an organization that will pay , ” said CynergisTek CEO Mac McMillan .

Criminals are attempting to trick Attack.Phishing consumers into handing over passwords and credit card details by taking advantage of the flood of emails being sent out Attack.Phishing ahead of new European privacy legislation . The European Union 's new General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR ) come into force on 25 May and the policy is designed to give consumers more control over their online data . As a result , in the run-up to it , organisations are sending out Attack.Phishing messages to customers to gain their consent for remaining on their mailing lists . With so many of these messages being sent out Attack.Phishing , it was perhaps only a matter of time before opportunistic cybercriminals looked to take advantage of the deluge of messages about GDPR and privacy policies arriving in people 's inboxes . A GDPR-related phishing scam Attack.Phishing uncovered by researchers at cyber security firm Redscan is doing just this in an effort to steal data with emails claiming to be Attack.Phishing from Airbnb . The attackers appear to be Attack.Phishing targeting business email addresses , which suggests the messages are sent Attack.Phishing to emails scraped from the web . The phishing message addresses the user as an Airbnb host and claims Attack.Phishing they 're not able to accept new bookings or send Attack.Phishing messages to prospective guests until a new privacy policy is accepted . `` This update is mandatory because of the new changes in the EU Digital privacy legislation that acts upon United States based companies , like Airbnb in order to protect European citizens and companies , '' the message says , and the recipient is urged Attack.Phishing to click a link to accept the new privacy policy . Those who click the link are asked to enter their personal information , including account credentials and payment card information . If the user enters these , they 're handing the data straight into the hands of criminals who can use it for theft , identity fraud , selling on the dark web and more . `` The irony wo n't be lost on anyone that cybercriminals are exploiting the arrival of new data protection regulations to steal Attack.Databreach people 's data , '' said Mark Nicholls , Director of Cyber Security at Redscan . `` Scammers know that people are expecting exactly these kinds of emails this month and that they are required to take action , whether that 's clicking a link or divulging personal data . It 's a textbook phishing campaign Attack.Phishing in terms of opportunistic timing and having a believable call to action '' . Airbnb is sending messages to users about GDPR , but the messages contain far more detail and do n't ask the users to enter any credentials , merely agree to the new Terms of Service . While the phishing messages might look legitimate at first glance , it 's worth noting they do n't use the right domain - the fake messages come from Attack.Phishing ' @ mail.airbnb.work ' as opposed to ' @ airbnb.com ' . Redscan has warned that attackers are likely to use GDPR as bait Attack.Phishing for other phishing scams Attack.Phishing , with messages claiming to be Attack.Phishing from other well-known companies . `` As we get closer to the GDPR implementation deadline , I think we can expect to see a lot a lot more of these types of phishing scams Attack.Phishing over the next few weeks , that 's for sure , '' said Nicholls , who warned attackers could attempt to use the ploy to deliver malware in future . `` In the case of the Airbnb scam email , hackers were attempting to harvest Attack.Databreach credentials . Attack vectors do vary however and it 's possible that other attacks may attempt to infect hosts with keyloggers or ransomware , for example . '' he said . Airbnb said those behind the attacks have n't accessed Attack.Databreach user details in order to send Attack.Phishing emails and that users who receive Attack.Phishing a suspicious message claiming to be Attack.Phishing from Airbnb should send it to their safety team . `` These emails are a brazen attempt at using our trusted brand to try and steal Attack.Databreach user 's details , and have nothing to do with Airbnb . We 'd encourage anyone who has received Attack.Phishing a suspicious looking email to report it to our Trust and Safety team on report.phishing @ airbnb.com , who will fully investigate , '' an Airbnb spokesperson told ZDNet . Airbnb also provided information on how to spot a fake email to help users to determine if a message is genuine or not .

A widely reported e-mail purporting to be Attack.Phishing a request to share a Google Docs document is actually a well-disguised phishing attack Attack.Phishing . It directs Attack.Phishing the user to a lookalike site and grants the site access to the target 's Google credentials . If the victim clicks on the prompt to give the site permission to use Google credentials , the phish Attack.Phishing then harvests Attack.Databreach all the contacts in the victim 's Gmail address book and adds them to its list of targets . The phish Attack.Phishing appears to have been initially targeted at a number of reporters , but it quickly spread widely across the Internet . Some of the sites associated with the attack appear to have been shut down . The e-mail uses a technique that a Trend Micro report linked last week to Pawn Storm , an ongoing espionage campaign frequently attributed to Russian intelligence operations . The attack uses the OAuth authentication interface , which is also used by many Web services to allow users to log in without using a password . By abusing OAuth , the attack is able to present a legitimate Google dialogue box requesting authorization . However , the authentication also asks permission for access to `` view and manage your e-mail '' and `` view and manage the files in your Google Drive . '' The fake application used in the Pawn Storm phish Attack.Phishing ( which posed as Attack.Phishing a Google security alert ) was named `` Google Defender . '' Today's phish Attack.Phishing asks the target to grant access to `` Google Docs '' —a fake application using the name of Google 's service . If the target grants permission , the malicious site will immediately harvest Attack.Databreach contacts from the target 's e-mail and send copies of the original message to them . [ Update , 4:40 pm EDT : ] Google has struck hard at the worm . Not only have all the sites associated with the phish Attack.Phishing been taken offline , but the permissions associated with the worm have been dropped from victims ' accounts . The domains used in the attack were registered through NameCheap , and used a Panama-based privacy service to conceal the registration information . The hostnames were pointed at a server behind Cloudflare 's content delivery and denial-of-service protection network .

For all the sophisticated tactics , techniques , and procedures employed by threat actors these days , phishing Attack.Phishing continued to be the top attack vector in 2016 , as it has been for some time . The big difference was that instead of targeting financial services companies , phishers increasingly targeted cloud storage service providers like Google and DropBox , security vendor PhishLabs said in a voluminous report on phishing trends released this week . Compared to 2013 , when barely 10 % of phishing attacks Attack.Phishing targeted cloud storage services , about 22.5 % of phishing attacks Attack.Phishing last year involved such companies . That was just barely below the 23 % of phishing scams Attack.Phishing involving financial brands , the company noted . What that means is that users are likely going to get more phishing emails this year trying to get them to part with credentials to their cloud storage credentials . `` Over the last four years , the number of phishing attacks Attack.Phishing targeting cloud storage services has skyrocketed , '' says Crane Hassold , senior security threat researcher at PhishLabs . `` Based on recent trends , it is likely that phishing attacks Attack.Phishing targeting cloud storage services will overtake financial institutions as the top target for phishers in 2017 . '' So far at least , almost all phishing attacks Attack.Phishing impacting this industry have involved only Google and DropBox . Many of the phishing campaigns Attack.Phishing targeting cloud storage providers contain lures Attack.Phishing saying that a document or picture has been shared with the victim and encourage them to sign in to their account in order to view it . A majority of the phishing pages involved in such campaigns Attack.Phishing have really been poor duplicates of the pages used by Google , DropBox , and other legitimate sites . Even so , `` based on the growing popularity of these types of attacks Attack.Phishing , phishers must still be having success compromising victim even with this lack of authenticity , '' Hassold says . The PhishLabs report is based on an analysis of some one million confirmed phishing sites spread across more than 170,000 unique domains , and also from the company ’ s handling of more than 7,800 phishing attacks Attack.Phishing per month in 2016 . The analysis showed an alarming increase across the board in phishing-related activities Attack.Phishing . The number of phishing sites in 2016 , for instance , was 23 % higher than the year before , while the volume of phishing emails grew by an average of 33 % across financial services , cloud storage/file hosting , webmail/online , payment services , and ecommerce sites . PhishLabs identified a total of 976 brands belonging to 568 organizations that cybercriminal used in phishing campaigns Attack.Phishing last year . The kind of data that phishers went after also broadened considerably last year . In addition to account credentials and personal data , phishers also used their phishing lures Attack.Phishing to try and snag financial , employment , and account security data like answers to challenge/response questions and mother ’ s maiden name . Ransomware 's Best Friend In 2016 , phishing Attack.Phishing also continued to be by far the most prevalent method for delivering ransomware on everything from end user systems to systems belonging to businesses , government agencies , schools , and critical infrastructure targets . The use of email as an authentication measure made it easier for phishers to mass harvest Attack.Databreach credentials for all email services on a single phishing site , instead of having to target email providers individually , Hassold says . `` Additionally , because a growing number of Web services are using email as a primary credential , phishers are able to multiply their profits by conducting password reuse attacks against these unsuspecting targets , '' he says . The easy availability of phish kits , or ready-to-use templates for creating working phishing sites , contributed to the problem . Many of these kits included sophisticated anti-detection mechanisms . Mechanisms included access control measures based on IP address , HTTP referrer , and hostname , whitelists , and blocklists . `` The big takeaway is that we ’ ve created ideal conditions for the mass harvesting Attack.Databreach of credentials via phishing attacks Attack.Phishing , '' Hassold notes . Unlike in the past where phishers were focused on immediate gains—by going after and selling access to financial accounts for instance—they are now trying to maximize the information they can compromise with the least effort .

Android users were the target of new banking malware with screen locking capabilities , which was disguised as Attack.Phishing a weather forecast app on Google Play . Detected by ESET as Trojan.Android/Spy.Banker.HU , the malware was a trojanized version of the otherwise benign Attack.Phishing weather forecast application Good Weather . The malicious app managed to get around Google ’ s security mechanisms and appeared in the store on February 4th , only to be reported by ESET two days later and consequently pulled from the store . During its short lifetime , the app found its way to devices of up to 5000 users . Besides the weather forecast functionalities it adopted from the original legitimate application , the trojan is able to lock and unlock infected devices remotely and intercept Attack.Databreach text messages . Apart from doing so , the trojan targeted the users of 22 Turkish mobile banking apps , whose credentials were harvested Attack.Databreach using phony login forms . The infected device then displays Attack.Phishing a fake system screen requesting device administrator rights on behalf of fictitious “ System update ” . By enabling these rights , the victim allows the malware to Change the screen-unlock password and Lock the screen . Users who are not alarmed at this point might be pleased with the new weather widget they can add to their home screens . However , in the background , the malware is getting to work sharing device information with its C & C server . Depending on the command it gets in return , it can intercept Attack.Databreach received text messages and send them to the server , remotely lock and unlock the device by setting a lock screen password of the attackers ’ choice , and harvest Attack.Databreach banking credentials . The trojan displays Attack.Phishing a fake login screen once the user runs one of the targeted banking apps and sends entered data to the attacker . Thanks to the permission to intercept Attack.Databreach the victims ’ text messages , the malware is also able to bypass SMS-based two-factor authentication . As for the device locking , we suspect this function enters the picture when cashing out the compromised bank account , to keep the fraudulent activity hidden from the user . Once locked out , all victims can do is wait until the malware receives a command to unlock the device . If you ’ ve recently installed a weather app from the Play Store , you might want to check if you haven ’ t been one of the victims of this banking trojan . In case you think you might have downloaded an app named Good Weather , check for its icon under your apps . After running anything you ’ ve installed on your mobile device , keep paying attention to what permissions and rights it requests . An app that won ’ t run without advanced permissions that aren ’ t connected to its intended function might be an app you don ’ t want installed on your phone .

Half a million smart devices including webcams and baby monitors in the city are currently vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to cyber attack . BARCELONA , Spain -- ( BUSINESS WIRE ) -- Avast , the leader in digital security products for consumers and businesses , today reveals the findings Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability from its latest research experiment into smart devices , including public and private webcam vulnerabilities in Spain , and , specifically , in Barcelona . Avast identified Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability more than 22,000 webcams and baby monitors in the city that are vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to attack , which means that cybercriminals could livestream the videos directly to the internet . The findings identified Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability more than 493,000 smart devices in Barcelona and 5.3 million in Spain overall – including smart kettles , coffee machines , garage doors , fridges , thermostats and other IP-connected devices – that are connected to the internet and vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to attacks . As webcams and other devices are vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , there are a range of security , legal and privacy concerns to be addressed Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . Snoopers could easily access and watch Attack.Databreach Mobile World Congress visitors and Barcelona residents in private and public spaces , and stream Attack.Databreach the video directly to the internet , or turn the device into a bot . When a device is infected , it can also be used to infect other devices , to add them to a botnet , or to take control over them and do harm to their owner . This includes kitchen and other household devices , to which cybercriminals can give remote orders , for example , to heat up water in a kettle . Smart device manufacturers also collect and store private user data , including behavioral data , contact information , and credit card details , which poses an additional risk if intercepted Attack.Databreach by cybercriminals . And while the problem is in no way confined to Barcelona , Spain , or indeed to webcams , it is particularly challenging for the city as it is hosting thousands of mobile and technology industry executives at Mobile World Congress 2017 this week . In the experiment , Avast found : Conducted in partnership with IoT search engine specialists Shodan.io , the experiment proves just how easy it is for anyone - including cybercriminals - to scan IP addresses and ports over the Internet and classify what device is on each IP address . And , with a little extra effort and know-how , hackers can also find out the type of device ( webcam , printer , smart kettle , fridge and so on ) , brand , model and the version of software it is running . “ With databases of commonly known device vulnerabilities publicly available , it doesn ’ t take a vast amount of effort and knowledge for cybercriminals to connect the dots and find out Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability which devices are vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , ” comments Vince Steckler , CEO at Avast . “ And even if the devices are password protected , hackers often gain access by trying out the most common user names and passwords until they crack it ” . Avast ’ s latest research experiment highlights a serious and growing problem which , unless addressed , will only worsen in line with the increasing number of devices connected to the Internet . Vince Steckler , Avast , continues : “ If webcams are set to livestream for example , hackers or anyone can connect , making it easy for cybercriminals to spy on innocent Mobile World Congress trade show visitors , or oblivious school pupils , workers or citizens nearby . In the future , we could also see cases where cybercriminals harvest Attack.Databreach personal data , including credit card information from unsuspected IoT users ” . To be aware of vulnerabilities and secure all connected devices against unwanted attacks , users need to contribute to making the online world a safer place by keeping software updated and choosing strong , complex passwords .

This file photo taken on August 13 , 2008 shows a man walking over the seal of the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley , Va. Wikileaks ' latest data dump Attack.Databreach , the `` Vault 7 , '' purporting to reveal the Central Intelligence Agency 's hacking tools , appears to be something of a dud . If you did n't know before that spy agencies could apply these tools and techniques , you 're naive , and if you think it undermines the attribution of hacker attacks on the Democratic National Committee and other targets , you 'll be disappointed . On the surface , the dump Attack.Databreach — touted by Wikileaks as the biggest ever publication of confidential CIA documents — offers some explosive revelations . They 're all over the news pages : The CIA is able to use your Samsung smart TV to eavesdrop Attack.Databreach on you ! The CIA can get into your iPhone or Android device , as well as your Windows , Mac or Linux PC , and harvest Attack.Databreach your communications before they are encrypted ! No encryption app — not even the Edward Snowden favorite , Signal , or WhatsApp , which uses the same encryption — is safe ! The CIA hoards `` zero day '' vulnerabilities — weaknesses not known to the software 's vendors — instead of revealing Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability them to the likes of Google , Apple and Microsoft ! CIA hackers use obfuscation tools to pretend its malware was made by someone else , including Russian intelligence ! There 's even a Buzzfeed story quoting current and former U.S. intelligence officers that the dump is `` worse than Snowden 's . '' There is little content in the dump to support these panicky reactions . Nothing in it indicates that the CIA has broken messenger encryption , as Open Whisper Systems , the software organization responsible for Signal , has been quick to point out . The CIA can read Attack.Databreach messenger communications only if it plants malware on a specific phone or computer ; then it can harvest Attack.Databreach keystrokes and take screenshots . This is not about mass surveillance — something that should bother the vast majority of internet users — but about monitoring specific targets . Open Whisper Systems tweeted on March 7 : `` Ubiquitous e2e encryption is pushing intelligence agencies from undetectable mass surveillance to expensive , high-risk , targeted attacks . '' It 's not much of a secret that using a hacked phone or computer renders end-to-end encryption useless . It was the essence of Apple 's dispute with the Federal Bureau of Investigation last year , when the company would n't help the FBI get into a phone owned by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook . The Big Brother-style implications of a hacked Samsung TV are undermined by the nature of the documents that describe the hack . The CIA needs physical access to the TV set to weaponize it . Robert Graham , founder of Errata Security , wrote on the firm 's blog : `` The docs are clear that they can update the software running on the TV using a USB drive . There 's no evidence of them doing so remotely over the Internet . If you are n't afraid of the CIA breaking in an installing a listening device , then you should't be afraid of the CIA installing listening software . '' The Wikileaks cache contains a manual for CIA hackers on making their malware harder to trace , for example , by adding foreign languages . Wikileaks also said that the CIA `` collects Attack.Databreach and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques ' stolen Attack.Databreach ' from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation . '' The library , however , contains all sorts of publicly available malware , as well as samples tentatively attributed to foreign intelligence services ; all that does is confirm that hackers , including CIA ones , are n't picky about the origins of the products they use . The important thing is that the malware should work . This should n't affect serious attempts to attribute hacker attacks . I 'm not sure this is fully understood within the U.S. intelligence community itself — at any rate , the declassified report on Russian hacking it released late last year appeared to base attribution on the use of specific publicly available malware . But industry experts usually need much more evidence . A number of possible Russian attacks were attributed to Moscow 's intelligence services because the attackers used specific command and control centers — servers — to collect Attack.Databreach information from various Russia adversaries . To set up a false flag operation , the CIA would need to go much further than obfuscating the origins of its malicious code . So all the jubilant tweets from Trump supporters declaring the CIA was behind the `` Russian hacks '' are at least premature and probably inaccurate .

This file photo taken on August 13 , 2008 shows a man walking over the seal of the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley , Va. Wikileaks ' latest data dump Attack.Databreach , the `` Vault 7 , '' purporting to reveal the Central Intelligence Agency 's hacking tools , appears to be something of a dud . If you did n't know before that spy agencies could apply these tools and techniques , you 're naive , and if you think it undermines the attribution of hacker attacks on the Democratic National Committee and other targets , you 'll be disappointed . On the surface , the dump Attack.Databreach — touted by Wikileaks as the biggest ever publication of confidential CIA documents — offers some explosive revelations . They 're all over the news pages : The CIA is able to use your Samsung smart TV to eavesdrop Attack.Databreach on you ! The CIA can get into your iPhone or Android device , as well as your Windows , Mac or Linux PC , and harvest Attack.Databreach your communications before they are encrypted ! No encryption app — not even the Edward Snowden favorite , Signal , or WhatsApp , which uses the same encryption — is safe ! The CIA hoards `` zero day '' vulnerabilities — weaknesses not known to the software 's vendors — instead of revealing Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability them to the likes of Google , Apple and Microsoft ! CIA hackers use obfuscation tools to pretend its malware was made by someone else , including Russian intelligence ! There 's even a Buzzfeed story quoting current and former U.S. intelligence officers that the dump is `` worse than Snowden 's . '' There is little content in the dump to support these panicky reactions . Nothing in it indicates that the CIA has broken messenger encryption , as Open Whisper Systems , the software organization responsible for Signal , has been quick to point out . The CIA can read Attack.Databreach messenger communications only if it plants malware on a specific phone or computer ; then it can harvest Attack.Databreach keystrokes and take screenshots . This is not about mass surveillance — something that should bother the vast majority of internet users — but about monitoring specific targets . Open Whisper Systems tweeted on March 7 : `` Ubiquitous e2e encryption is pushing intelligence agencies from undetectable mass surveillance to expensive , high-risk , targeted attacks . '' It 's not much of a secret that using a hacked phone or computer renders end-to-end encryption useless . It was the essence of Apple 's dispute with the Federal Bureau of Investigation last year , when the company would n't help the FBI get into a phone owned by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook . The Big Brother-style implications of a hacked Samsung TV are undermined by the nature of the documents that describe the hack . The CIA needs physical access to the TV set to weaponize it . Robert Graham , founder of Errata Security , wrote on the firm 's blog : `` The docs are clear that they can update the software running on the TV using a USB drive . There 's no evidence of them doing so remotely over the Internet . If you are n't afraid of the CIA breaking in an installing a listening device , then you should't be afraid of the CIA installing listening software . '' The Wikileaks cache contains a manual for CIA hackers on making their malware harder to trace , for example , by adding foreign languages . Wikileaks also said that the CIA `` collects Attack.Databreach and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques ' stolen Attack.Databreach ' from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation . '' The library , however , contains all sorts of publicly available malware , as well as samples tentatively attributed to foreign intelligence services ; all that does is confirm that hackers , including CIA ones , are n't picky about the origins of the products they use . The important thing is that the malware should work . This should n't affect serious attempts to attribute hacker attacks . I 'm not sure this is fully understood within the U.S. intelligence community itself — at any rate , the declassified report on Russian hacking it released late last year appeared to base attribution on the use of specific publicly available malware . But industry experts usually need much more evidence . A number of possible Russian attacks were attributed to Moscow 's intelligence services because the attackers used specific command and control centers — servers — to collect Attack.Databreach information from various Russia adversaries . To set up a false flag operation , the CIA would need to go much further than obfuscating the origins of its malicious code . So all the jubilant tweets from Trump supporters declaring the CIA was behind the `` Russian hacks '' are at least premature and probably inaccurate .