The Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a warning to healthcare organizations using File Transfer Protocol ( FTP ) servers . Medical and dental organizations have been advised to ensure FTP servers are configured to require users to be properly authenticated before access to stored data can be gained . Many FTP servers are configured to allow anonymous access using a common username such as ‘ FTP ’ or ‘ anonymous ’ . In some cases , a generic password is required , although security researchers have discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that in many cases , FTP servers can be accessed without a password . The FBI warning Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability cites research conducted by the University of Michigan in 2015 that revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability more than 1 million FTP servers allowed anonymous access to stored data The FBI warns that hackers are targeting these anonymous FTP servers to gain access Attack.Databreach to the protected health information of patients . PHI carries a high value on the black market as it can be used for identity theft and fraud . Healthcare organizations could also be blackmailed Attack.Ransom if PHI is stolen Attack.Databreach . Last year , the hacker operating under the name TheDarkOverlord conducted a number of attacks Attack.Databreach on healthcare organizations . The protected health information of patients was stolen Attack.Databreach and organizations were threatened with the publication of data if a sizable ransom payment Attack.Ransom was not made . In some cases , patient data were published online when payment was not received Attack.Ransom . There are reasons why IT departments require FTP servers to accept anonymous requests ; however , if that is the case , those servers should not be used to store any protected health information of patients . If PHI must be stored on the servers , they can not be configured to run in anonymous mode . The FBI suggests all healthcare organizations should instruct their IT departments to check the configuration of their FTP servers to ensure they are not running in anonymous mode and to take immediate action to secure those servers and reduce risk if they are .

A new ransomware has been released that not only encrypts your files , but also deletes them if you take too long to make the ransom payment Attack.Ransom of $ 150 USD . The Jigsaw Ransomware , named after the iconic character that appears in the ransom note , will delete files every hour and each time the infection starts until you pay the ransom Attack.Ransom . At this time is currently unknown how this ransomware is distributed . This is the first time that we have seen these types of threats actually being carried out by a ransomware infection . The good news is that a method has been discovered that allows victims to decrypt their files for free . Jigsaw Ransomware is serious about its threats ... It is not the first time that we have seen ransomware threaten to delete files , but this is the first time that one has actually carried out its threats . The Jigsaw Ransomware deletes files every 60 minutes and when the program is restarted . Every hour , the Jigsaw Ransomware will delete a file on your computer and increment a counter . Over time this counter will cause more than one file to be deleted every hour . More destructive , though , is the amount of files that are deleted every time the ransomware starts . After the initial infection , when the ransomware it restarted , whether that be from a reboot or terminating the process , Jigsaw will delete a thousand , yes a thousand , files from the victim 's computer . This process is very destructive and obviously being used to pressure the victim into paying the ransom Attack.Ransom . After MalwareHunterTeam analyzed further variants of the Jigsaw Ransomware , he brought up an interesting point . Do `` They even care about the money or just want to play with people ? '' When analyzing the variants , it has been shown that they are coded to only execute after a certain date . For example , the Portuguese variant is hard coded to only run after April 6th 2016 , while another was set to go off on March 23 , 2016 . There is also a wide range of ransom prices being offered , with prices ranging from $ 20 to 200 USD . Are these people motivated by money or is this just one big game to them ? In the ransom note there is a 60 minute timer that counts down to 0 . When it reaches 0 it will delete a certain amount of files depending on how many times the counter has reset . Each time it resets , a counter will increase , which will cause more files to be deleted on the next reset . When a victim sends a ransom payment Attack.Ransom , they can click on the check payment button . When this button is clicked , the ransomware queries the http : //btc.blockr.io/ site to see if a payment has been made Attack.Ransom to the assigned bitcoin address . If the amount of bitcoins in the assigned address is greater than the payment amount , then it will automatically decrypt the files .

A Tor proxy service is being used by crooks to divert ransom payments Attack.Ransom to their own accounts at the expense of ransomware distributors -- and their victims , according to security researchers . Ransomware distributors expecting an easy payday are having their illicit earnings stolen by other cybercriminals , who are hijacking the ransom payments Attack.Ransom before they 're received and redirecting them into their own bitcoin wallets . But not only are the attacks giving criminals a taste of their own medicine in becoming victims of cyber-theft , they are also preventing ransomware victims from unlocking their encrypted files -- because , as far as those distributing the malware are concerned , they never received their ransom payment Attack.Ransom . Uncovered by researchers at Proofpoint , it 's believed to be the first scheme of its kind , with cybercriminals using a Tor proxy browser to carry out man-in-the-middle attacks to steal the cryptocurrency payments , which victims of ransomware are attempting to send Attack.Ransom to their attackers . The attacks take advantage of the way ransomware distributors request Attack.Ransom victims to use Tor to buy the cryptocurrency they need to make the ransom payment Attack.Ransom . While many ransomware notes provide instructions on how to download and run the Tor browser , others provide links to a Tor proxy -- regular websites that translate Tor traffic into normal web traffic -- so the process of paying Attack.Ransom is as simple as possible for the victim . However , one of the Tor gateways being used is altering bitcoin wallet addresses in the proxy , and redirecting the payment Attack.Ransom into other accounts , rather than those of the ransomware attacker . Meanwhile , those behind Magniber ransomware appear to have moved to combat bitcoin address replacement by splitting the HTML source code of wallets into four parts , thus making it harder for proxies to find the address to change . While the sums of bitcoin stolen do n't represent a spectacular haul , the interception attacks do create problems for ransomware distributors -- and their victims . The victims are the ultimate losers in this scenario . Not only are they paying Attack.Ransom hundreds or even thousands of dollars to in ransom demands Attack.Ransom , they 're not even getting their files back in return because the man-in-the-middle attacks mean the ransomware distributors do n't think they 've been paid Attack.Ransom .

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 .

East Ohio Regional Hospital in Harper 's Ferry , Ohio , and Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling , West Virginia , both got affected by ransomware on the last weekend of November . [ 1 ] Due to this incident , ambulance patients were transported to other hospitals nearby and emergency room admissions were limited to walk-up patients only . Due to attack , employees needed to switch to paper charting and various systems were taken offline immediately . This fairly quick response limited the ransomware damage and prevented the possible data breach Attack.Databreach . [ 2 ] According to Karin Janiszewski , director of marketing and public relations for EORH and OVMC , hospitals reacted as soon as possible and , at the moment of writing , they are already using the computer network . On the following Saturday , Karin Janiszewski stated : There has been no patient information breach Attack.Databreach . The hospitals are switching to paper charting to ensure patient data protection . We have redundant security , so the attack was able to get through the first layer but not the second layer . IT staff dealt with the outbreak to avoid a data breach Attack.Databreach When it comes to malware attacks on large companies , the loss Attack.Databreach of personal customer data is the worst thing that can happen . It seems that this time the situation was handled quick enough to prevent having the sensitive data being compromised Attack.Databreach . IT team took several computers offline , and , because of this , most of the clinical operations transferred to other units , and emergency patients were automatically taken to different locations . On Saturday , when the incidents occurred , hospital officials stated that the staff is ready to take everything on paper until the downtime is over . Also , since this is a ransomware-type malware attack Attack.Ransom , hackers demand a ransom Attack.Ransom . However , officials did not select the scenario involving making the payment Attack.Ransom . No matter how big or how little the ransom demand Attack.Ransom is , officials should n't even consider making the payment Attack.Ransom because it may lead to system damage or permanent data loss . [ 3 ] In the United States , data breaches Attack.Databreach and malware attacks on huge organizations have become a common thing , especially in the healthcare industry . In 2016 Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital paid the demanded ransom Attack.Ransom in Bitcoin after having its data encrypted . [ 4 ] The infection was widespread and the attack Attack.Ransom cost around $ 17 000 . Another incident that resulted in ransom payment Attack.Ransom was spotted in Kansas Heart Hospital in 2016 also . Unfortunately , after the payment was made Attack.Ransom , attackers disappeared ignoring the promise to decrypt locked files . They send yet another ransom demand Attack.Ransom instead and asked for Attack.Ransom a bigger amount of money . Previously this year , the Indiana-based hospital got infected with SamSam which is an infamous ransomware virus which has been relying on specific infection tactics which is highly personalized . After considering different scenarios , the hospital decided to pay Attack.Ransom 4 BTC ( equal to $ 45 000 at that time ) for ransomware developers to get private keys needed for files ' recovery . Ransomware developers gave what they promised .

Earlier this month , Salted Hash reported on a surge in attacks against publicly accessible MongoDB installations . Since January 3 , the day of that first report , the number of victims has climbed from about 200 databases to more than 40,000 . In addition to MongoDB , those responsible for the attacks have started targeting Elasticsearch and CouchDB . No matter the platform being targeted , the message to the victim is the same ; send a small Bitcoin payment Attack.Ransom to the listed address , or forever lose access to your files . [ Learn about top security certifications : Who they 're for , what they cost , and which you need . The problem is , some of the more recent attacks Attack.Ransom show evidence the database was erased . So even if the ransom is paid Attack.Ransom , the data is lost for good . The researchers tracking these attacks are aware of at least four individuals who delete the databases entirely after running a list command . Once deleted , they ’ ll leave Attack.Ransom the ransom note and logoff the system . So far , these individuals have used more than a dozen Bitcoin wallet addresses , and nine different email accounts . The tracking document is available on Google Docs . Only one of those victims had backups to use when the ransom payment Attack.Ransom failed . Soon , criminals started going after other development platforms , such as Elasticsearch - a Java-based search engine that 's popular in enterprise environments . Then they moved on to public facing Hadoop and CouchDB deployments .

However , modern ransomware certainly merits a classification as one of the most evolving sectors of cybercrime in 2017 . Though it is quite difficult to calculate the overall damage caused by ransomware in 2016 , some researchers state that cybercriminals received over $ 1 billion in ransom payments Attack.Ransom last year . Others mention a 3,500 % increase in the criminal use of infrastructure that helps run ransomware campaigns . Carbon Black says that ransomware is the fastest growing malware across industries , up 50 % in 2016 . Technology ( 218 % ) , utilities and energy ( 112 % ) and banking ( 93 % ) saw the highest year-on-year ransomware growth last year . Due to an important lack of qualified technical personnel and other resources , law enforcement agencies are globally unprepared to detect , prevent and prosecute this type of digital crime . Moreover , more and more cases of ransom payment Attack.Ransom by the police have become public , while those police officers who dare to resist take a substantive risk . There is the Texas police who lost eight years of their investigative work and all of the evidence by refusing to pay Attack.Ransom cybercriminals . This sad statistic explains why the majority of despaired victims of cybercrime fail to report it to the law enforcement agencies . Attackers can easily rent a Ransomware-as-a-Service ( RaaS ) infrastructure for as low as $ 39.99 per month , making up to $ 195,000 of monthly profit without much effort in comparison to other niches of digital fraud and crime . The business of ransomware has become so attractive that some cybercriminals don ’ t even bother to actually encrypt the data , but just extort money Attack.Ransom from their victims with fake malware . The victims are so scared by media stories about ransomware , combined with law enforcement agencies ’ inability to protect them or at least to punish the offenders , that they usually pay . The new generation of ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom IoT and smart devices , locking not only mobiles and smart TVs , but also doors in hotels and air conditioning systems in luxury smart houses . Criminals switch from file encryption to database encryption and web applications , demonstrating a great scalability of ransomware tactics . To increase their profits , hacking teams behind the ransomware campaigns now threaten to send the victim ’ s sensitive data to all of their contacts instead of just deleting it . Cryptocurrencies allow attackers to receive online payments almost without any risk of being traced and prosecuted . Despite the media hype around blockchain ’ s ability to reinvent and improve the world , so far only the cybercriminals have entirely leveraged the full potential of this emerging technology . A simple business model , high profits , accessibility and affordability of resources to deploy large-scale attacking campaigns , and low risks in comparison to other sectors of ( cyber ) crime , assure the flourishing future of ransomware . All of this without mentioning the problem of global inequality actually causing the cybercrime , which I briefly described in Forbes recently . Nonetheless , it does not mean that organizations should give up . The FBI confirms the skyrocketing problem of ransomware , but suggests relying on prevention rather than paying ransom Attack.Ransom to the criminals . PwC also suggests to plan and prepare the organization to this kind of incident in order to have internal capabilities to recover without suffering important financial losses . Some cybersecurity vendors , like SentinelOne , contractually guarantee protection and provide a financial insurance for their clients .