a $ 55,000 ransomAttack.Ransomto hackers to regain access to its computer systems , hospital officials said . Part of the health network had been held hostageAttack.Ransomsince late Thursday , when ransomware locked files including patient medical records . The hackers targeted more than 1,400 files , the names of every one temporarily changed to “ I ’ m sorry. ” They gave the hospital seven days to payAttack.Ransomor the files would be permanently encrypted , officials said . An analysis since the attack confirmed no personal patient information was takenAttack.Databreachby the hackers , believed to be located in eastern Europe , said Hancock Health CEO Steve Long . The affected files were backed up and could have been recovered , but restoring them would take days — maybe even weeks — and would be costly , Long said . From a business standpoint , paying a small ransomAttack.Ransommade more sense , he said . The hacker asked forAttack.Ransomfour bitcoins — a virtual currency used to make anonymous transactions that are nearly impossible to trace . At the time of the transfer , those four bitcoins were valued at about $ 55,000 .
VILLAGE OF NASHOTAH - The village recently paidAttack.Ransoman 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 .
Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paidAttack.Ransoma $ 17,000 ransomAttack.Ransomin bitcoin to a hacker who seized control of the hospital 's computer systems and would give back access only when the money was paidAttack.Ransom, the hospital 's chief executive said Wednesday . The assaultAttack.Ransomon Hollywood Presbyterian occurred Feb 5 , when hackers using malware infected the institution 's computers , preventing hospital staff from being able to communicate from those devices , said Chief Executive Allen Stefanek . The hacker demandedAttack.Ransom40 bitcoin , the equivalent of about $ 17,000 , he said . `` The malware locks systems by encrypting files and demanding ransomAttack.Ransomto obtain the decryption key . The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransomAttack.Ransomand obtain the decryption key , '' Stefanek said . `` In the best interest of restoring normal operations , we did this . '' The hospital said it alerted authorities and was able to regain control of all its computer systems by Monday , with the assistance of technology experts . Stefanek said patient care was never compromisedAttack.Databreach, nor were hospital records . Top hospital officials called the Los Angeles Police Department last week , according to police Lt John Jenal . Laura Eimiller , an FBI spokeswoman , said the bureau has taken over the hacking investigation but declined to discuss specifics of the case . Law enforcement sources told The Times that the hospital paid the ransomAttack.Ransombefore reaching out to law enforcement for assistance . The attack forced the hospital to return to pen and paper for its record-keeping .
Senate Democrats are still rebuilding their computer system after hackers demanded a ransomAttack.Ransomearlier this month to unlock the network . The state legislators ' offices continue to operate via a combination of cell phones and laptops , some personal and some provided by the caucus . In the last two weeks , email service was also restored . On Monday , Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa said Microsoft technicians would begin going around to strip down and rebuild every computer with the goal of having everything restored in the next several days . `` [ They are ] working to rebuild our network so we 're all operating off one system , '' the Allegheny County Democrat said . `` We 're rebooting that very soon . '' Costa said he can not comment on the ongoing investigation or the exact dollar amount demandedAttack.Ransomby the hackers . The caucus has not and will not pay the ransomAttack.Ransom, he said . `` For people who do pay the ransomAttack.Ransom, the likelihood they 'll get the codes they need to undo the encryption is much lower than people talk about , '' he said . `` And there are a number of times it 's happened you do n't hear about . '' Hackers who launch such attacks lock their targets out of their data in an effort to extract a ransomAttack.Ransomfor its return . The security firm SonicWall estimated 638 million ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomthat cost $ 209 million last year , more than 167 times the 3.8 million attacksAttack.Ransomrecorded in 2015 .
After the ransackingAttack.Databreachof MongoDB , ElasticSearch , Hadoop , CouchDB , and Cassandra servers , attackers are now hijacking hundreds of MySQL databases , deleting their content , and leaving a ransom note behind asking forAttack.Ransoma 0.2 Bitcoin ( $ 235 ) paymentAttack.Ransom. According to breach detection firm GuardiCore , the attacks are happening via brute-force attacks on Internet-exposed MySQL servers , and there 's plenty of those laying around since MySQL is one of today 's most popular database systems . All attacks came from a server in the Netherlands Based on currently available evidence , the attacks started on February 12 , and only lasted for 30 hours , during which time attackers attempted to brute-force their way into MySQL root accounts . Investigators said all attacks came from the same IP address from the Netherlands , 109.236.88.20 , belonging to a hosting company called WorldStream . During their ransackingAttack.Databreach, attackers did n't behave in a constant pattern , making it hard to attribute the hacks to one group , despite the usage of the same IP . For example , after gaining access to MySQL servers , attackers created a new database called PLEASE_READ and left a table inside it called WARNING that contained their ransom demandsAttack.Ransom. In some cases , attackers only created the WARNING table and left it inside an already existing database , without creating a new one . Investigators report that attackers would then dump the database 's content and delete it afterward , leaving only the one holding their ransomAttack.Ransom. In some cases , attackers deleted the databases without dumping any data . Attackers have their own website Two ransom notes have been found in the hundreds of confirmed attacksAttack.Ransom, one askingAttack.Ransomvictims to get in contact via email and confirm the payment , while the other used a completely different mode of operation , redirecting users to a Tor-hosted website . The two Bitcoin addresses listed in the ransom notes received four and six paymentsAttack.Ransom, respectively , albeit GuardiCore experts doubt that all are from victims . `` We can not tell whether it was the attackers who made the transactions to make their victims feel more confident about payingAttack.Ransom, '' they said . Be sure the attacker still has your data Just like in the case of the now infamous MongoDB attacksAttack.Ransomthat have hitAttack.Ransomover 41,000 servers , it 's recommended that victims check logs before deciding to payAttack.Ransomand see if the attackers actually took their data . If companies elect to pay the ransomAttack.Ransom, should always ask the attacker for proof they still have their data . None of this would be an issue if IT teams follow standard security practices that involve using an automated server backup system and deleting the MySQL root account or at least using a strong and hard-to-brute-force password . This is not the first time MySQL servers have been held for ransomAttack.Ransom. The same thing happened in 2015 , in a series of attacksAttack.Ransomcalled RansomWebAttack.Ransom, where attackers used unpatched phpBB forums to hijack databases and hold websites up for ransomAttack.Ransom.
One week ago a global cyberattackAttack.Ransomdubbed “ unprecedented ” by Europol began infecting an estimated 200,000 of the world ’ s computers , starting a seven-day countdown to the destruction of data if victims did not pay a ransomAttack.Ransom. On Friday , those countdowns begin reaching zero . But as of lunchtime the attackers had claimed only about $ 92,000 ( €82,183 ) in paymentsAttack.Ransomfrom their widespread ransom demandsAttack.Ransom, according to Elliptic Enterprises Ltd , a UK-based company that tracks illicit use of bitcoin . The company calculates the total based on payments tracked to bitcoin addresses specified in the ransom demandsAttack.Ransom. The ransomware , called WannaCry , began infecting users on May 12th and gave them 72 hours to payAttack.Ransom$ 300 in bitcoin or payAttack.Ransomtwice as much . Refusal to payAttack.Ransomafter seven days was promised to result in the permanent loss of data via irrevocable encryption . With affected institutions including the Health Service Executive ( which said it prevented the ransomware from activating ) , the National Health Service in the UK , FedEx and PetroChina , few initially paid upAttack.Ransom, leading to speculation that organisations were taking their chances on fixing their corrupt machines before the ransomAttack.Ransomforced a mass deletion of critical data . A week later , experts agree the financial gains of the hackers remain astonishingly low . “ With over 200,000 machines affected , the figure is lower than expected , ” said Jamie Akhtar , co-founder of the London-based security software firm CyberSmart . “ If even 1 per cent paid the ransomAttack.Ransomthat would be $ 600k. ” Mr Akhtar said experts may never know how much larger this figure would have been if a so-called kill switch had not been accidentally triggered by a cyber security researcher , who registered an internet domain that acted as a disabling tool for the worm ’ s propagation . While the world ’ s law enforcement is pointing its resources at trying to identify the culprits , Tom Robinson , chief operating officer and co-founder of Elliptic Enterprises , says it ’ s unlikely the money taken from victims will be taken from the digital bitcoin wallets they ’ re being anonymously held in . “ Given the amount of scrutiny this has come under , I would be surprised if they moved it anytime soon , ” he said . “ I just don ’ t think the risk is worth the $ 90,000 they ’ ve raised so far. ” Mr Akhtar agrees but doesn ’ t think the criminals have given up hope while machines infected later still have time ticking on their ransomAttack.Ransomcountdown . “ It seems like they are still actively trying to bring funds in , ” he said , noting a Twitter post from Symantec on Thursday , which seemed to show fresh messaging from the attackers promising to hold their end of the decryption bargain if victims paid upAttack.Ransom. Mr Akhtar believes the best thing the perpetrators can do to hide from authorities is “ destroy any evidence and abandon the bitcoin wallets ” . Of course , the hack may have nothing to do with money at all . Any movement of funds from a bitcoin wallet would act as a valuable clue for law enforcement as to who is behind the attack . Preliminary finger-pointing has already targeted groups with suspected links to the North Korean regime , but clues are still few are far between . – ( Bloomberg )
The average ransomware attackAttack.Ransomyielded $ 1,077 last year , new research shows , representing a 266 percent spike from a year earlier . The reason for the landmark year for hackers ? Many ransomware victims readily payAttack.Ransomthe price . The number of attacks , varieties of distinct malware and money lost ballooned as ransomware became one of the top tactics of attackers , according to new research from the security firm Symantec . Some of the most high-profile ransomware incidentsAttack.Ransomof the last year include San Francisco ’ s Muni getting hitAttack.Ransom, Washington D.C. ’ s police department being breachedAttack.Databreachjust before inauguration and a Los Angeles college payingAttack.Ransoma $ 28,000 ransomAttack.Ransom. Hoping to turn the tide against the billion-dollar ransomware industry , last year the FBI urged businesses to alert authorities and not pay upAttack.Ransom. Instead , most keep attacksAttack.Ransoma secret , paying offAttack.Ransomhackers 70 percent of the time . That behavior only increases the sweet spot for demandsAttack.Ransom, as criminals seek the highest possible ransomAttack.Ransomwhile trying to avoid the attention of law enforcement . Economists say hackers who apply more sophisticated pricing techniques “ could lead to dramatic increases in profits at relatively little costs . ” The highest demandAttack.Ransomseen in public during the last was $ 28,730 from MIRCOP ransomware . It ’ s not clear if anyone actually paid offAttack.Ransomthose specific hackers . In private , however , higher ransomsAttack.Ransomare finding success when hackers successfully target the right companies . An IBM Security study from December 2016 found that over half of the businesses they surveyed said they had already paidAttack.Ransomover $ 10,000 in ransomAttack.Ransomwhile 20 percent said they ’ d paidAttack.Ransomover $ 40,000 . Globally , 34 percent of victims end up paying ransomAttack.Ransom. American victims , however , pay at a rate of 64 percent , according to Norton . “ That ’ s a phenomenal number , ” Symantec ’ s Kevin Haley told CyberScoop . “ I always compare it to direct mail where if you get a 1 percent rate you ’ re doing really good . These guys get a 34 percent return rate . Extortion really paysAttack.Ransom. ” The twist of the knife comes when only 47 percent of victims who pay the ransomAttack.Ransomactually recover any files . “ If so many people are willing to pay the ransomAttack.Ransom, there ’ s no reason for the price to come down , ” Haley said . “ In fact , it ’ s only going to go up . We may see that average go even higher until that price ceiling is discovered when so many people aren ’ t willing to pay that much . But we haven ’ t hit it yet . ”
The average ransomware attackAttack.Ransomyielded $ 1,077 last year , new research shows , representing a 266 percent spike from a year earlier . The reason for the landmark year for hackers ? Many ransomware victims readily payAttack.Ransomthe price . The number of attacks , varieties of distinct malware and money lost ballooned as ransomware became one of the top tactics of attackers , according to new research from the security firm Symantec . Some of the most high-profile ransomware incidentsAttack.Ransomof the last year include San Francisco ’ s Muni getting hitAttack.Ransom, Washington D.C. ’ s police department being breachedAttack.Databreachjust before inauguration and a Los Angeles college payingAttack.Ransoma $ 28,000 ransomAttack.Ransom. Hoping to turn the tide against the billion-dollar ransomware industry , last year the FBI urged businesses to alert authorities and not pay upAttack.Ransom. Instead , most keep attacksAttack.Ransoma secret , paying offAttack.Ransomhackers 70 percent of the time . That behavior only increases the sweet spot for demandsAttack.Ransom, as criminals seek the highest possible ransomAttack.Ransomwhile trying to avoid the attention of law enforcement . Economists say hackers who apply more sophisticated pricing techniques “ could lead to dramatic increases in profits at relatively little costs . ” The highest demandAttack.Ransomseen in public during the last was $ 28,730 from MIRCOP ransomware . It ’ s not clear if anyone actually paid offAttack.Ransomthose specific hackers . In private , however , higher ransomsAttack.Ransomare finding success when hackers successfully target the right companies . An IBM Security study from December 2016 found that over half of the businesses they surveyed said they had already paidAttack.Ransomover $ 10,000 in ransomAttack.Ransomwhile 20 percent said they ’ d paidAttack.Ransomover $ 40,000 . Globally , 34 percent of victims end up paying ransomAttack.Ransom. American victims , however , pay at a rate of 64 percent , according to Norton . “ That ’ s a phenomenal number , ” Symantec ’ s Kevin Haley told CyberScoop . “ I always compare it to direct mail where if you get a 1 percent rate you ’ re doing really good . These guys get a 34 percent return rate . Extortion really paysAttack.Ransom. ” The twist of the knife comes when only 47 percent of victims who pay the ransomAttack.Ransomactually recover any files . “ If so many people are willing to pay the ransomAttack.Ransom, there ’ s no reason for the price to come down , ” Haley said . “ In fact , it ’ s only going to go up . We may see that average go even higher until that price ceiling is discovered when so many people aren ’ t willing to pay that much . But we haven ’ t hit it yet . ”
The average ransomware attackAttack.Ransomyielded $ 1,077 last year , new research shows , representing a 266 percent spike from a year earlier . The reason for the landmark year for hackers ? Many ransomware victims readily payAttack.Ransomthe price . The number of attacks , varieties of distinct malware and money lost ballooned as ransomware became one of the top tactics of attackers , according to new research from the security firm Symantec . Some of the most high-profile ransomware incidentsAttack.Ransomof the last year include San Francisco ’ s Muni getting hitAttack.Ransom, Washington D.C. ’ s police department being breachedAttack.Databreachjust before inauguration and a Los Angeles college payingAttack.Ransoma $ 28,000 ransomAttack.Ransom. Hoping to turn the tide against the billion-dollar ransomware industry , last year the FBI urged businesses to alert authorities and not pay upAttack.Ransom. Instead , most keep attacksAttack.Ransoma secret , paying offAttack.Ransomhackers 70 percent of the time . That behavior only increases the sweet spot for demandsAttack.Ransom, as criminals seek the highest possible ransomAttack.Ransomwhile trying to avoid the attention of law enforcement . Economists say hackers who apply more sophisticated pricing techniques “ could lead to dramatic increases in profits at relatively little costs . ” The highest demandAttack.Ransomseen in public during the last was $ 28,730 from MIRCOP ransomware . It ’ s not clear if anyone actually paid offAttack.Ransomthose specific hackers . In private , however , higher ransomsAttack.Ransomare finding success when hackers successfully target the right companies . An IBM Security study from December 2016 found that over half of the businesses they surveyed said they had already paidAttack.Ransomover $ 10,000 in ransomAttack.Ransomwhile 20 percent said they ’ d paidAttack.Ransomover $ 40,000 . Globally , 34 percent of victims end up paying ransomAttack.Ransom. American victims , however , pay at a rate of 64 percent , according to Norton . “ That ’ s a phenomenal number , ” Symantec ’ s Kevin Haley told CyberScoop . “ I always compare it to direct mail where if you get a 1 percent rate you ’ re doing really good . These guys get a 34 percent return rate . Extortion really paysAttack.Ransom. ” The twist of the knife comes when only 47 percent of victims who pay the ransomAttack.Ransomactually recover any files . “ If so many people are willing to pay the ransomAttack.Ransom, there ’ s no reason for the price to come down , ” Haley said . “ In fact , it ’ s only going to go up . We may see that average go even higher until that price ceiling is discovered when so many people aren ’ t willing to pay that much . But we haven ’ t hit it yet . ”
Cyber criminals took a second swing at Mecklenburg County government on Thursday after officials rejected a demand for moneyAttack.Ransomfollowing a ransomware attackAttack.Ransom. The follow-up attempts to hold the county hostage over illegally encrypted data came just hours after County Manager Dena Diorio announced she ’ d decided against payingAttack.Ransoma hacker ransomAttack.Ransom. Instead of agreeing to payAttack.Ransomcriminals , she said Wednesday , the county will rebuild its system applications and restore files and data from backups . But by Thursday afternoon , hackers tried to strike again . Diorio sent staff members an email saying , “ I have a new warning for employees. ” As the county ’ s IT staff worked to recover from the first cyberattack , Diorio said , they discovered more attempts to compromiseAttack.Databreachcomputers and data on Thursday . “ To limit the possibility of a new infection , ITS is disabling employees ’ ability to open attachments generated by DropBox and Google Documents , ” she wrote in an email . “ The best advice for now is to limit your use of emails containing attachments , and try to conduct as much business as possible by phone or in person. ” She described the aftermath of the ransomware attackAttack.Ransomas a “ crisis ” and reassured employees they should not feel personally responsible for the incident . The county first learned of the problem earlier this week after an employee openedAttack.Phishinga malicious “ phishing ” email and accessed an attached file that unleashed a widespread problem inside the county ’ s network of computers and information technology . The intent of that ransomware attackAttack.Ransomwas to essentially access as many county government files and data servers as possible . Then , the information was encrypted or locked , keeping employees at the county from accessing operating systems and files . The person or people responsible for the infiltration then demandedAttack.Ransomthe county payAttack.Ransomtwo bitcoins , or about $ 23,000 , in exchange for a release of the locked data . The county refused to payAttack.Ransom. County officials say they anticipate the recovery time for Mecklenburg County government operations will take days . “ We are open for business , and we are slow , but there ’ s no indication of any data lossAttack.Databreachor that personal information was compromisedAttack.Databreach, ” Diorio said . Diorio said third-party security experts believe the attackAttack.Ransomearlier this week by a new strain of ransomware called LockCrypt originated from Iran or Ukraine . Forty-eight of about 500 county computer servers were affected .
Officials in Mecklenburg , N.C. must make a difficult decision by 1 p.m . ET on Wednesday : They must choose whether to payAttack.Ransomtwo bitcoins—currently worth about $ 25,000—to hackers who are holding the county ’ s computer files for ransomAttack.Ransom, [ Update : they refused to payAttack.Ransom] . The situation is the latest example of cyber criminals deployingAttack.Ransoma form of software known as ransomware , which freezes up files on a computer network until someone enters a decryption code to unlock them . Typically , the code can only be obtained by payingAttack.Ransomthe hackers . An official for the county , which encompasses the city of Charlotte , said the ransomware was triggered when an employee clicked on an email attachment , and that it is wrecking havoc with daily operations : “ She said an example of the problem is the county ’ s code enforcement office , where much of the work is done electronically . Employees no longer have access to their records . But she said they are switching to paper records for work on Wednesday , ” according to the Charlotte Observer . The official also explained that the county faces a dilemma in deciding whether to payAttack.Ransom. While paying the ransomAttack.Ransommay be the only way to obtain the decryption key , there is no guarantee the hackers will honor their commitment and provide the key . The anonymous hackers do not appear to have targeted Mecklenburg county in particular , but rather the official thinks the attack was launched as part of a broader money-making scheme involving ransomware . Similar attacks , which typically exploit old Microsoft software , struck millions of computers in two separate waves earlier this year , affecting everything from businesses to governments to hospitals . While most of the incidents occurred in Europe and Asia , U.S. organizations were hit too—including a transit system in Sacramento , Calif. and a hospital in Los Angeles .
( TNS ) — Last month , employees at the Colorado Department of Transportation were greeted by a message on their computer screens similar to this : “ All your files are encrypted with RSA-2048 encryption . … It ’ s not possible to recover your files without private key . … You must sendAttack.Ransomus 0.7 BitCoin for each affected PC or 3 BitCoins to receive ALL Private Keys for ALL affected PC ’ s. ” CDOT isn’t payingAttack.Ransom, but others have . In fact , so-called ransomware has become one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in the U.S. and internationally , with the FBI estimating total paymentsAttack.Ransomare nearing $ 1 billion . Hackers use ransomware to encrypt computer files , making them unreadable without a secret key , and then demand digital currencyAttack.Ransomlike bitcoin if victims want the files back — and many victims are falling for that promise . Ransomware infects more than 100,000 computers around the world every day and paymentsAttack.Ransomare approaching $ 1 billion , said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein during the October 2017 Cambridge Cyber Summit , citing FBI statistics . A study by researchers at Google , Chainalysis , University of California San Diego and NYU Tandon School of Engineering estimated that from 2016 to mid 2017 , victims paidAttack.Ransom$ 25 million in ransomAttack.Ransomto get files back . And one out of five businesses that do pay the ransomAttack.Ransomdon ’ t get their data back , according to 2016 report by Kaspersky Labs . Last spring , the Erie County Medical Center in New York was attackedAttack.Ransomby SamSam due to a misconfigured web server , according to The Buffalo News . Because it had backed up its files , the hospital decided not to payAttack.Ransomthe estimated $ 44,000 ransomAttack.Ransom. It took six weeks to get back to normal at a recovery cost of nearly $ 10 million . More recently in January , the new SamSam variant sneakedAttack.Ransominto Indiana hospital Hancock Health , which decided to payAttack.Ransom4 bitcoin , or about $ 55,000 , in ransomAttack.Ransom. Attackers gained entry by using a vendor ’ s username and password on a Thursday night . The hospital was back online by Monday morning . Colorado security officials are still investigating the CDOT ransomware attackAttack.Ransomthat took 2,000 employee computers offline for more than a week . They don ’ t plan to pay the ransomAttack.Ransombut offered few details about the attackAttack.Ransomother than confirming it was a variant of the SamSam ransomware . Security researchers with Cisco ’ s Talos , which shared the SamSam message with The Denver Post , reported in January that the new SamSam variant had so far collected 30.4 bitcoin , or about $ 325,217 . The reality is that people need to be smarter about computer security . That means patching software , using anti-malware software , and not sharing passwords and accounts . And not opening files , emails or links from unfamiliar sources — and sometimes familiar sources . Webroot doesn ’ t have an official stance on whether to pay a ransomAttack.Ransomto get files back , but Dufour says it ’ s a personal decision . Cybersecurity companies like Webroot can advise whether the hacker has a reputation for restoring files after payment is receivedAttack.Ransom. “ Paying a ransomAttack.Ransomto a cybercriminal is an incredibly personal decision . It ’ s easy to say not to negotiate with criminals when it ’ s not your family photos or business data that you ’ ll never see again . Unfortunately , if you want your data back , paying the ransomAttack.Ransomis often the only option , ” Dufour said . “ However , it ’ s important to know that there are some strains of ransomware that have coding and encryption errors . For these cases , even paying the ransomAttack.Ransomwon ’ t decrypt your data . I recommend checking with a computer security expert before paying any ransomAttack.Ransom. ”
( TNS ) — Last month , employees at the Colorado Department of Transportation were greeted by a message on their computer screens similar to this : “ All your files are encrypted with RSA-2048 encryption . … It ’ s not possible to recover your files without private key . … You must sendAttack.Ransomus 0.7 BitCoin for each affected PC or 3 BitCoins to receive ALL Private Keys for ALL affected PC ’ s. ” CDOT isn’t payingAttack.Ransom, but others have . In fact , so-called ransomware has become one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in the U.S. and internationally , with the FBI estimating total paymentsAttack.Ransomare nearing $ 1 billion . Hackers use ransomware to encrypt computer files , making them unreadable without a secret key , and then demand digital currencyAttack.Ransomlike bitcoin if victims want the files back — and many victims are falling for that promise . Ransomware infects more than 100,000 computers around the world every day and paymentsAttack.Ransomare approaching $ 1 billion , said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein during the October 2017 Cambridge Cyber Summit , citing FBI statistics . A study by researchers at Google , Chainalysis , University of California San Diego and NYU Tandon School of Engineering estimated that from 2016 to mid 2017 , victims paidAttack.Ransom$ 25 million in ransomAttack.Ransomto get files back . And one out of five businesses that do pay the ransomAttack.Ransomdon ’ t get their data back , according to 2016 report by Kaspersky Labs . Last spring , the Erie County Medical Center in New York was attackedAttack.Ransomby SamSam due to a misconfigured web server , according to The Buffalo News . Because it had backed up its files , the hospital decided not to payAttack.Ransomthe estimated $ 44,000 ransomAttack.Ransom. It took six weeks to get back to normal at a recovery cost of nearly $ 10 million . More recently in January , the new SamSam variant sneakedAttack.Ransominto Indiana hospital Hancock Health , which decided to payAttack.Ransom4 bitcoin , or about $ 55,000 , in ransomAttack.Ransom. Attackers gained entry by using a vendor ’ s username and password on a Thursday night . The hospital was back online by Monday morning . Colorado security officials are still investigating the CDOT ransomware attackAttack.Ransomthat took 2,000 employee computers offline for more than a week . They don ’ t plan to pay the ransomAttack.Ransombut offered few details about the attackAttack.Ransomother than confirming it was a variant of the SamSam ransomware . Security researchers with Cisco ’ s Talos , which shared the SamSam message with The Denver Post , reported in January that the new SamSam variant had so far collected 30.4 bitcoin , or about $ 325,217 . The reality is that people need to be smarter about computer security . That means patching software , using anti-malware software , and not sharing passwords and accounts . And not opening files , emails or links from unfamiliar sources — and sometimes familiar sources . Webroot doesn ’ t have an official stance on whether to pay a ransomAttack.Ransomto get files back , but Dufour says it ’ s a personal decision . Cybersecurity companies like Webroot can advise whether the hacker has a reputation for restoring files after payment is receivedAttack.Ransom. “ Paying a ransomAttack.Ransomto a cybercriminal is an incredibly personal decision . It ’ s easy to say not to negotiate with criminals when it ’ s not your family photos or business data that you ’ ll never see again . Unfortunately , if you want your data back , paying the ransomAttack.Ransomis often the only option , ” Dufour said . “ However , it ’ s important to know that there are some strains of ransomware that have coding and encryption errors . For these cases , even paying the ransomAttack.Ransomwon ’ t decrypt your data . I recommend checking with a computer security expert before paying any ransomAttack.Ransom. ”
( TNS ) — Last month , employees at the Colorado Department of Transportation were greeted by a message on their computer screens similar to this : “ All your files are encrypted with RSA-2048 encryption . … It ’ s not possible to recover your files without private key . … You must sendAttack.Ransomus 0.7 BitCoin for each affected PC or 3 BitCoins to receive ALL Private Keys for ALL affected PC ’ s. ” CDOT isn’t payingAttack.Ransom, but others have . In fact , so-called ransomware has become one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in the U.S. and internationally , with the FBI estimating total paymentsAttack.Ransomare nearing $ 1 billion . Hackers use ransomware to encrypt computer files , making them unreadable without a secret key , and then demand digital currencyAttack.Ransomlike bitcoin if victims want the files back — and many victims are falling for that promise . Ransomware infects more than 100,000 computers around the world every day and paymentsAttack.Ransomare approaching $ 1 billion , said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein during the October 2017 Cambridge Cyber Summit , citing FBI statistics . A study by researchers at Google , Chainalysis , University of California San Diego and NYU Tandon School of Engineering estimated that from 2016 to mid 2017 , victims paidAttack.Ransom$ 25 million in ransomAttack.Ransomto get files back . And one out of five businesses that do pay the ransomAttack.Ransomdon ’ t get their data back , according to 2016 report by Kaspersky Labs . Last spring , the Erie County Medical Center in New York was attackedAttack.Ransomby SamSam due to a misconfigured web server , according to The Buffalo News . Because it had backed up its files , the hospital decided not to payAttack.Ransomthe estimated $ 44,000 ransomAttack.Ransom. It took six weeks to get back to normal at a recovery cost of nearly $ 10 million . More recently in January , the new SamSam variant sneakedAttack.Ransominto Indiana hospital Hancock Health , which decided to payAttack.Ransom4 bitcoin , or about $ 55,000 , in ransomAttack.Ransom. Attackers gained entry by using a vendor ’ s username and password on a Thursday night . The hospital was back online by Monday morning . Colorado security officials are still investigating the CDOT ransomware attackAttack.Ransomthat took 2,000 employee computers offline for more than a week . They don ’ t plan to pay the ransomAttack.Ransombut offered few details about the attackAttack.Ransomother than confirming it was a variant of the SamSam ransomware . Security researchers with Cisco ’ s Talos , which shared the SamSam message with The Denver Post , reported in January that the new SamSam variant had so far collected 30.4 bitcoin , or about $ 325,217 . The reality is that people need to be smarter about computer security . That means patching software , using anti-malware software , and not sharing passwords and accounts . And not opening files , emails or links from unfamiliar sources — and sometimes familiar sources . Webroot doesn ’ t have an official stance on whether to pay a ransomAttack.Ransomto get files back , but Dufour says it ’ s a personal decision . Cybersecurity companies like Webroot can advise whether the hacker has a reputation for restoring files after payment is receivedAttack.Ransom. “ Paying a ransomAttack.Ransomto a cybercriminal is an incredibly personal decision . It ’ s easy to say not to negotiate with criminals when it ’ s not your family photos or business data that you ’ ll never see again . Unfortunately , if you want your data back , paying the ransomAttack.Ransomis often the only option , ” Dufour said . “ However , it ’ s important to know that there are some strains of ransomware that have coding and encryption errors . For these cases , even paying the ransomAttack.Ransomwon ’ t decrypt your data . I recommend checking with a computer security expert before paying any ransomAttack.Ransom. ”
Although Robert Herjavec , an investor on ABC 's `` Shark Tank , '' expects the price of bitcoin to `` skyrocket , '' he has no plans to personally buy any . That 's because as the CEO of cybersecurity firm Herjavec Group , he does n't want to support the growing trend of hackers using cryptocurrency . `` I ca n't invest in something that my enemy uses as funds , '' he explained on CNBC 's `` Squawk Alley . '' Indeed , `` If there was no cryptocurrency , much of the large hacks that we 're seeing today would n't exist , '' Herjavec told Money . As one example , Herjavec is concerned with the role cryptocurrency plays in ransomware attacksAttack.Ransom. `` Cryptocurrency permits anonymity , '' he explains to CNBC Make It . `` It 's a very popular form of payment for ransomware in particular . '' Ransomware is a type of software that locks or encrypts a computer user 's data and files , in affect holding it hostage . To release the information , a hacker will demand a ransom paymentAttack.Ransom. Ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomincreased 6,000 percent in 2016 from 2015 , according to a study from IBM Security . And in 2017 , 200,000 computers in 150 countries belonging to businesses , governments and even the U.K. National Health Service were impactedAttack.Ransomby the ransomware virus known as WannaCry . In that case , victims were told to make a paymentAttack.Ransomin bitcoin to get their computers back . Hackers often demand the ransomAttack.Ransombe paid in cryptocurrency because it allows them to remain anonymous , Herjavec says . `` I can take over your computer or personal information , hold it for ransomAttack.Ransom, give you instructions on how to create a virtual wallet , forceAttack.Ransomyou to payAttack.Ransomme , and you have no way of finding out who I am , '' Herjavec explains . That 's because a bitcoin wallet is only identified by a number , and `` payments are direct without a bank or credit card company acting as the middle man , '' Herjavec says . `` There is no money trail , so it 's very difficult to track back to an individual . '' With WannaCry , the hackers asked forAttack.Ransom$ 300 worth of bitcoin from victims , and if they waited over 72 hours to payAttack.Ransom, the fine increased to $ 600 . If they waited a week , their information would be locked for good . The Trump administration pointed to North Korea as the originator of the attack . In 2016 , ransomware was used to coerce Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center , a hospital in Los Angeles , to payAttack.Ransom40 bitcoin to hackers , The New York Times reports . That sum was then worth $ 17,000 . Bitcoin closed at $ 10,779.90 on Tuesday , March 6 , according to CoinMarketCap , which makes those 40 coins worth about $ 431,196 . To protect yourself from ransomware attacksAttack.Ransom, take steps to secure your online information . `` Keep your computer and data safe by backing up often , using cloud services with dual factor authentication and complex passwords , '' Herjavec suggests . `` Have anti-virus [ software ] installed and kept up to date . ''
In wake of an attack on computers at Colorado ’ s DOT , experts at Webroot shed light on ransomware Last month , employees at the Colorado Department of Transportation were greeted by a message on their computer screens similar to this : “ All your files are encrypted with RSA-2048 encryption . … It ’ s not possible to recover your files without private key . … You must sendAttack.Ransomus 0.7 BitCoin for each affected PC or 3 BitCoins to receive ALL Private Keys for ALL affected PC ’ s. ” CDOT isn ’ t payingAttack.Ransom, but others have . In fact , so-called ransomware has become one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in the U.S. and internationally , with the FBI estimating total paymentsAttack.Ransomare nearing $ 1 billion . Hackers use ransomware to encrypt computer files , making them unreadable without a secret key , and then demand digital currencyAttack.Ransomlike bitcoin if victims want the files back — and many victims are falling for that promise . To better understand how ransomware works and how it has spread so effectively , The Denver Post talked with Broomfield anti-malware company Webroot , which got its start in the late 1990s cleansing computer viruses from personal computers . “ The end goal is just to put ransomware on the computer because right now the most successful way for cybercriminals to make money is with ransomingAttack.Ransomyour files , ” said Tyler Moffitt , a senior threat research analyst at Webroot . Ransomware infects more than 100,000 computers around the world every day and paymentsAttack.Ransomare approaching $ 1 billion , said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein during the October 2017 Cambridge Cyber Summit , citing FBI statistics . A study by researchers at Google , Chainalysis , University of California San Diego and NYU Tandon School of Engineering estimated that from 2016 to mid 2017 , victims paidAttack.Ransom$ 25 million in ransomAttack.Ransomto get files back . And one out of five businesses that do pay the ransomAttack.Ransomdon ’ t get their data back , according to 2016 report by Kaspersky Labs . It ’ s a growing business for cybercriminals . And whether to pay or not is something each user or company must decide . Last spring , the Erie County Medical Center in New York was attackedAttack.Ransomby SamSam due to a misconfigured web server , according to The Buffalo News . Because it had backed up its files , the hospital decided not to payAttack.Ransomthe estimated $ 44,000 ransomAttack.Ransom. It took six weeks to get back to normal at a recovery cost of nearly $ 10 million . More recently in January , the new SamSam variant sneakedAttack.Ransominto Indiana hospital Hancock Health , which decided to payAttack.Ransom4 bitcoin , or about $ 55,000 , in ransomAttack.Ransom. Attackers gained entry by using a vendor ’ s username and password on a Thursday night . The hospital was back online by Monday morning . Other times , malware isn ’ t so obvious . Some propagate when user visits infected websites . A trojan named Poweliks injected bad code into vulnerable programs , like an unpatched Internet Explorer . Poweliks crept into the Windows registry to force the computer to do all sorts of nasty things , from demanding a ransomAttack.Ransomto joining a click-fraud bot network to click ads without the user even realizing it . There also are booby-trapped ads , known as malvertising . They get into computers by , again , targeting flawed software and injecting malicious code . This has targeted programs like unpatched Adobe Flash Player , Java or other runtime software , or software that runs online all the time .
In wake of an attack on computers at Colorado ’ s DOT , experts at Webroot shed light on ransomware Last month , employees at the Colorado Department of Transportation were greeted by a message on their computer screens similar to this : “ All your files are encrypted with RSA-2048 encryption . … It ’ s not possible to recover your files without private key . … You must sendAttack.Ransomus 0.7 BitCoin for each affected PC or 3 BitCoins to receive ALL Private Keys for ALL affected PC ’ s. ” CDOT isn ’ t payingAttack.Ransom, but others have . In fact , so-called ransomware has become one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in the U.S. and internationally , with the FBI estimating total paymentsAttack.Ransomare nearing $ 1 billion . Hackers use ransomware to encrypt computer files , making them unreadable without a secret key , and then demand digital currencyAttack.Ransomlike bitcoin if victims want the files back — and many victims are falling for that promise . To better understand how ransomware works and how it has spread so effectively , The Denver Post talked with Broomfield anti-malware company Webroot , which got its start in the late 1990s cleansing computer viruses from personal computers . “ The end goal is just to put ransomware on the computer because right now the most successful way for cybercriminals to make money is with ransomingAttack.Ransomyour files , ” said Tyler Moffitt , a senior threat research analyst at Webroot . Ransomware infects more than 100,000 computers around the world every day and paymentsAttack.Ransomare approaching $ 1 billion , said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein during the October 2017 Cambridge Cyber Summit , citing FBI statistics . A study by researchers at Google , Chainalysis , University of California San Diego and NYU Tandon School of Engineering estimated that from 2016 to mid 2017 , victims paidAttack.Ransom$ 25 million in ransomAttack.Ransomto get files back . And one out of five businesses that do pay the ransomAttack.Ransomdon ’ t get their data back , according to 2016 report by Kaspersky Labs . It ’ s a growing business for cybercriminals . And whether to pay or not is something each user or company must decide . Last spring , the Erie County Medical Center in New York was attackedAttack.Ransomby SamSam due to a misconfigured web server , according to The Buffalo News . Because it had backed up its files , the hospital decided not to payAttack.Ransomthe estimated $ 44,000 ransomAttack.Ransom. It took six weeks to get back to normal at a recovery cost of nearly $ 10 million . More recently in January , the new SamSam variant sneakedAttack.Ransominto Indiana hospital Hancock Health , which decided to payAttack.Ransom4 bitcoin , or about $ 55,000 , in ransomAttack.Ransom. Attackers gained entry by using a vendor ’ s username and password on a Thursday night . The hospital was back online by Monday morning . Other times , malware isn ’ t so obvious . Some propagate when user visits infected websites . A trojan named Poweliks injected bad code into vulnerable programs , like an unpatched Internet Explorer . Poweliks crept into the Windows registry to force the computer to do all sorts of nasty things , from demanding a ransomAttack.Ransomto joining a click-fraud bot network to click ads without the user even realizing it . There also are booby-trapped ads , known as malvertising . They get into computers by , again , targeting flawed software and injecting malicious code . This has targeted programs like unpatched Adobe Flash Player , Java or other runtime software , or software that runs online all the time .
In wake of an attack on computers at Colorado ’ s DOT , experts at Webroot shed light on ransomware Last month , employees at the Colorado Department of Transportation were greeted by a message on their computer screens similar to this : “ All your files are encrypted with RSA-2048 encryption . … It ’ s not possible to recover your files without private key . … You must sendAttack.Ransomus 0.7 BitCoin for each affected PC or 3 BitCoins to receive ALL Private Keys for ALL affected PC ’ s. ” CDOT isn ’ t payingAttack.Ransom, but others have . In fact , so-called ransomware has become one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in the U.S. and internationally , with the FBI estimating total paymentsAttack.Ransomare nearing $ 1 billion . Hackers use ransomware to encrypt computer files , making them unreadable without a secret key , and then demand digital currencyAttack.Ransomlike bitcoin if victims want the files back — and many victims are falling for that promise . To better understand how ransomware works and how it has spread so effectively , The Denver Post talked with Broomfield anti-malware company Webroot , which got its start in the late 1990s cleansing computer viruses from personal computers . “ The end goal is just to put ransomware on the computer because right now the most successful way for cybercriminals to make money is with ransomingAttack.Ransomyour files , ” said Tyler Moffitt , a senior threat research analyst at Webroot . Ransomware infects more than 100,000 computers around the world every day and paymentsAttack.Ransomare approaching $ 1 billion , said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein during the October 2017 Cambridge Cyber Summit , citing FBI statistics . A study by researchers at Google , Chainalysis , University of California San Diego and NYU Tandon School of Engineering estimated that from 2016 to mid 2017 , victims paidAttack.Ransom$ 25 million in ransomAttack.Ransomto get files back . And one out of five businesses that do pay the ransomAttack.Ransomdon ’ t get their data back , according to 2016 report by Kaspersky Labs . It ’ s a growing business for cybercriminals . And whether to pay or not is something each user or company must decide . Last spring , the Erie County Medical Center in New York was attackedAttack.Ransomby SamSam due to a misconfigured web server , according to The Buffalo News . Because it had backed up its files , the hospital decided not to payAttack.Ransomthe estimated $ 44,000 ransomAttack.Ransom. It took six weeks to get back to normal at a recovery cost of nearly $ 10 million . More recently in January , the new SamSam variant sneakedAttack.Ransominto Indiana hospital Hancock Health , which decided to payAttack.Ransom4 bitcoin , or about $ 55,000 , in ransomAttack.Ransom. Attackers gained entry by using a vendor ’ s username and password on a Thursday night . The hospital was back online by Monday morning . Other times , malware isn ’ t so obvious . Some propagate when user visits infected websites . A trojan named Poweliks injected bad code into vulnerable programs , like an unpatched Internet Explorer . Poweliks crept into the Windows registry to force the computer to do all sorts of nasty things , from demanding a ransomAttack.Ransomto joining a click-fraud bot network to click ads without the user even realizing it . There also are booby-trapped ads , known as malvertising . They get into computers by , again , targeting flawed software and injecting malicious code . This has targeted programs like unpatched Adobe Flash Player , Java or other runtime software , or software that runs online all the time .
Federal officials , Microsoft and Cisco are working with the city of Atlanta to resolve the attackAttack.Ransom, but Atlanta 's mayor wo n't say if the city paidAttack.Ransomthe $ 51,000 ransomAttack.Ransom. As of Saturday , Atlanta officials and federal partners were still “ working around the clock ” to resolve the ransomware attackAttack.Ransomon city computers that occurred around 5 a.m. on Thursday , March 22 , and encrypted some financial and person data . As @ Cityofatlanta officials & federal partners continue working around the clock to resolve issues related to the ransomware cyber attackAttack.Ransomlaunched against the City , solid waste & other DPW operations are not impacted . — ATLPublicWorks ( @ ATLPublicWorks ) March 24 , 2018 On Thursday , the official investigation included “ the FBI , U.S. Department of Homeland Security , Cisco cybersecurity officials and Microsoft to determine what information has been accessedAttack.Databreachand how to resolve the situation. ” A city employee sent WXIA a screenshot of the ransom demandAttack.Ransom, which included a pay-per-computer optionAttack.Ransomof $ 6,800 or an option to payAttack.Ransom$ 51,000 to unlock the entire system . CBS 46 reported that the ransom demandAttack.Ransomand instruction said : Send .8 bitcoins for each computer or 6 bitcoins for all of the computers . ( That 's the equivalent of around $ 51,000 . ) After the .8 bitcoin is sent , leave a comment on their website with the provided host name . They ’ ll then reply to the comment with a decryption software . When you run that , all of the encrypted files will be recovered . On Friday , March 23 , city employees were handed a printed notice as they walked through the front doors . They were told not to turn on their computers until the issue was resolved . Officials were still unsure who was behind the attack . Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms advised city employees and customers to monitor their personal information , although there was no evidence to show customer or employee data was compromisedAttack.Databreach. Mayor Bottoms clarified what services had not been impacted and were still available to residents and which ones had been impacted . Mayor Bottoms will not say if Atlanta intends to pay the ransom demandAttack.Ransom, saying , “ We will be looking for guidance from , specifically , our federal partners on how to best navigate the best course of action. ” During a press conference , Bottoms said , “ What we want to make sure of is that we aren ’ t putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. ” She then turned the press conference over to Richard Cox , the City of Atlanta 's chief operations officer ; the poor dude is brand new to serving as Atlanta ’ s COO . He confirmed the existence of the ransom demandAttack.Ransombut would not reveal the contents .
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana hospital said it paidAttack.Ransoma $ 50,000 ransomAttack.Ransomto hackers who hijacked patient data . The ransomware attackAttack.Ransomaccessed the computers of Hancock Health in Greenfield through an outside vendor 's account Thursday . It quickly infected the system by locking out data and changing the names of more than 1,400 files to `` I 'm sorry . '' The virus demandedAttack.Ransomfour bitcoins in exchange for unlocking the data , which included patient medical records and company emails . The hospital paidAttack.Ransomthe amount , about $ 50,000 at the time , early Saturday morning , said Rob Matt , senior vice president and chief strategy officer . `` It was n't an easy decision , '' Matt said . `` When you weigh the cost of delivering high-quality care ... versus not paying and bearing the consequences of a new system . '' The data started unlocking soon after the money was transferred , Matt said . `` The amount of the ransomAttack.Ransomwas reasonable in respect to the cost of continuing down time and not being able to care for patients , '' Matt said . Hancock Health includes about two dozen health care facilities , including Hancock Regional Hospital in Greenfield , about 15 miles east of Indianapolis . The health system said in a news release that patient data was not compromisedAttack.Databreach. Life support and other critical hospital services were not affected , and patient safety was never at risk . Ransomware is a growing digital extortion technique that affected tens of thousands of Americans in 2016 , USA TODAY reported . Criminals use various phishing methodsAttack.Phishingthrough emails or bogus links to infect victims with malicious software . The virus infects the computer network by encrypting files or locking down the entire system . Victims log on and receive a message telling them the files have been hijacked and to get the files back they will have to payAttack.Ransom. Hospitals are a frequent target of these attacks . In May , a ransomware virus affected more than 200,000 victims in 150 countries , including more than 20 % of hospitals in the United Kingdom . That attack was later traced to North Korea . Hancock Health said it worked with the FBI and hired an Indianapolis cybersecurity expert for advice on how to respond to the attack . The systems were back Monday after paying the ransomAttack.Ransom. “ 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 snowstorm at hand , coupled with the one of the worst flu seasons in memory , we wanted to recover our systems in the quickest way possible . '' Hospital officials could have retrieved back up files , but Long said they feared restoring the hijacked data would take too long . `` We made the deliberate decision , ” Long said , `` to pay the ransomAttack.Ransomto expedite our return to full operations . ''
When two ransomware attacks hitAttack.Ransomthe city of Riverside in April and May , it wasn ’ t the first time the city ’ s public safety servers lost data because of a malicious virus , this newspaper found in a review of city records . A check of newspapers across Ohio reveals similar unfortunate targets around the state : Licking County government , the Columbiana County courts and townships in Clinton and Morrow counties were once all ransomware victims . In Clark County , hackers encrypted the Mad River Twp . Fire and EMS servers with ransomware in December . The damage extends across the nation : When a library system in South Carolina faced a ransomware attackAttack.Ransom, patrons couldn ’ t check out or return books . In Richmond , Indiana , the local housing agency fell victim to a $ 8,000 ransomAttack.Ransom. Hackers shut down 2,000 computers at Colorado ’ s transportation department , then attacked again when the agency tried to recover . While the hackers ’ ideal target — and the damage caused — varies , one certainty is that local governments are not exempt from the pain of ransomware , which is malicious software that threatens to block access to data or to publish it unless the infected organization pays a ransomAttack.Ransom. The ransom demandsAttack.Ransomare often relatively small compared to an organization ’ s overall budget , but the cost of avoiding payment can be steep , as the city of Atlanta found this year . An attacker demandedAttack.Ransoma $ 50,000 ransomAttack.Ransomto restore the Atlanta ’ s systems , but the city ended up shelling out nearly $ 2.7 million on eight emergency contracts in an attempt to fix the problem . Experts encouraged all computer users to follow one rule to avoid ransomware ’ s predilection for data destruction . “ Real simple , ” said John Moore , a computer technician in Trotwood . “ Back up your data. ” Prior attack uncovered Hackers hit Riverside ’ s police computers with ransomware several years before the latest incidents , emails obtained by the newspaper show . The attack — previously unknown to the public before this story — occurred under a prior city manager and also saw the police department lose documents , according to an email from Councilman Steve Fullenkamp to other city leaders . Sometimes , as was the case with at least one of Riverside ’ s recent attacks , the virus can be downloaded by clicking on an infected email . Organizations often don ’ t learn they have been infected until they can ’ t access their data or until computer messages appear demanding a ransom paymentAttack.Ransomin exchange for a decryption key , according to the FBI ’ s website . The first of the recent attacks against Riverside erased about 10 months of police records , the records show . The second attack wiped just several hours of data , because the city had backed-up the data .
When two ransomware attacks hitAttack.Ransomthe city of Riverside in April and May , it wasn ’ t the first time the city ’ s public safety servers lost data because of a malicious virus , this newspaper found in a review of city records . A check of newspapers across Ohio reveals similar unfortunate targets around the state : Licking County government , the Columbiana County courts and townships in Clinton and Morrow counties were once all ransomware victims . In Clark County , hackers encrypted the Mad River Twp . Fire and EMS servers with ransomware in December . The damage extends across the nation : When a library system in South Carolina faced a ransomware attackAttack.Ransom, patrons couldn ’ t check out or return books . In Richmond , Indiana , the local housing agency fell victim to a $ 8,000 ransomAttack.Ransom. Hackers shut down 2,000 computers at Colorado ’ s transportation department , then attacked again when the agency tried to recover . While the hackers ’ ideal target — and the damage caused — varies , one certainty is that local governments are not exempt from the pain of ransomware , which is malicious software that threatens to block access to data or to publish it unless the infected organization pays a ransomAttack.Ransom. The ransom demandsAttack.Ransomare often relatively small compared to an organization ’ s overall budget , but the cost of avoiding payment can be steep , as the city of Atlanta found this year . An attacker demandedAttack.Ransoma $ 50,000 ransomAttack.Ransomto restore the Atlanta ’ s systems , but the city ended up shelling out nearly $ 2.7 million on eight emergency contracts in an attempt to fix the problem . Experts encouraged all computer users to follow one rule to avoid ransomware ’ s predilection for data destruction . “ Real simple , ” said John Moore , a computer technician in Trotwood . “ Back up your data. ” Prior attack uncovered Hackers hit Riverside ’ s police computers with ransomware several years before the latest incidents , emails obtained by the newspaper show . The attack — previously unknown to the public before this story — occurred under a prior city manager and also saw the police department lose documents , according to an email from Councilman Steve Fullenkamp to other city leaders . Sometimes , as was the case with at least one of Riverside ’ s recent attacks , the virus can be downloaded by clicking on an infected email . Organizations often don ’ t learn they have been infected until they can ’ t access their data or until computer messages appear demanding a ransom paymentAttack.Ransomin exchange for a decryption key , according to the FBI ’ s website . The first of the recent attacks against Riverside erased about 10 months of police records , the records show . The second attack wiped just several hours of data , because the city had backed-up the data .
Authorities on Wednesday charged two Iranian citizens for the ransomware cyber attackAttack.Ransomthat hobbled the city of Atlanta ’ s computer network in March , and the federal indictment outlines the pair ’ s massive nationwide scheme to breach computer networks of local governments , health care systems and other public entities . The defendants , Faramarz Shahi Savandi , 34 , and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri , 27 , are alleged to have developed the SamSam ransomware , malicious software that encrypts data until the infected organizations paid ransomAttack.Ransom. All told , the pair inflicted harm on more than 200 victims across the country and collected roughly $ 6 million in ransomAttack.Ransomover a three year period dating back to 2015 . Their scheme caused over $ 30 million in losses to various entities , according to federal authorities . The hack to city of Atlanta computers in March crippled city business for days . One internal report that surfaced in August estimated the damage to the city could cost up to $ 17 million . “ We ’ re glad that these people will be brought to justice , ” Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told Channel 2 Action News . “ Hopefully this will stop another municipality from experiencing what we did. ” “ The defendants allegedly hijacked victims ’ computer systems and shut them down until the victims paid a ransomAttack.Ransom, ” said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein , speaking at a press conference in Washington D.C. “ Many of the victims were public agencies with missions that involve saving lives and performing other critical functions for the American people. ” The two men are not in U.S. custody , and Iran has no extradition treaty with the U.S . But Justice Department officials expressed confidence that the Savandi and Mansouri ’ s travel patterns would subject them to being captured . Atlanta officials have repeatedly denied payingAttack.Ransomthe $ 51,000 in ransom demandedAttack.Ransomby the hackers and the 26-page federal indictment released Wednesday doesn ’ t directly address which cities and entities paid ransomAttack.Ransom. Brian Benczkowski , an assistant attorney general for the U.S. Justice Department , told reporters on Wednesday that the agency wouldn ’ t identify which victims paidAttack.Ransomthe attackers . A city of Atlanta spokesperson on Wednesday said again that no one acting on the city ’ s behalf , including its insurance carrier , paid any ransomAttack.Ransom. But the indictment has two references to Atlanta and it raises questions about whether or not the city paid ransomAttack.Ransom. The indictment describes the March 22 assaultAttack.Ransomon Atlanta ’ s network and the effort by the two men to demand ransomAttack.Ransom. In one paragraph , the indictment says they demanded ransomAttack.Ransomfrom Atlanta in Bitcoin payments in exchange for encryption keys to recover the city ’ s compromised data . The next paragraph says that on April 19 , Savandi “ received funds associated with ransom proceedsAttack.Ransom, which were converted into Iranian rial and deposited by ” an currency exchanger . The indictment does not say if those proceeds were associated with the Atlanta attack . But Ralph Echemendia , a computer hacking consultant who advises corporations on cyber security , said he read the indictment and thinks the payment was associated with the Atlanta attack because it would be one way that federal agents connected the breach to Savanda and Mansouri . The indictment describes how the two men demanded paymentsAttack.Ransomin bitcoins , a so-called crypto currency , and in Atlanta ’ s case , the demandAttack.Ransomequaled roughly $ 50,000 . “ The moment you try and turn it into dollars , euros or any kind of real currency it has to go through an exchange , ” Echemendia said . “ At that point the exchange would have to work with law enforcement … ultimately that is going to wind up in somebody ’ s back account. ” The Justice Department declined to answer a question from the AJC about whether April 19 exchange of bitcoins into Iranian rial described in the indictment was related to Atlanta ’ s attack . Tony UcedaVelez , CEO of Versprite , an Atlanta based security services said the language in the indictment does make it seem a ransom was paidAttack.Ransomon the city ’ s behalf . But he said it could have been made by someone in law enforcement hoping the funds would lead to the attackers . UcedaVelez also pointed to an attachment in the indictment that indicated someone associated with the city had followed the attackers ’ initial instructions . The indictment included a ransom note to Newark instructing it on how to download a Tor network browser and visit the attackers ’ website where victims could upload two files to be decrypted as a demonstration . Newark paid its ransomAttack.Ransomof roughly $ 30,000 . Another attachment shows the ransom website the attackers created for the city of Atlanta on the Tor network . To get there , someone would have had to download the Tor browser . And it appeared they had uploaded a couple of files for the demonstration . “ Files available to decrypt : 2 , ” read a statement on the site .
The Colorado Department of Transportation ( DOT ) has shut down over 2,000 computers after some systems got infected with the SamSam ransomware on Wednesday , February 21 . The agency 's IT staff is working with its antivirus provider McAfee to remediate affected workstations and safeguard other endpoints before before reintroducing PCs into its network . DOT officials told local press [ 1 , 2 ] that crucial systems were not affected , such as those managing road surveillance cameras , traffic alerts , message boards , and others . The agency 's Twitter feed continued to show traffic alerts after the agency shut down much of its employees ' IT network . Colorado DOT will not pay the ransomAttack.RansomIn a rare sign of transparency , officials revealed the name of the ransomware —SamSam . This is the same ransomware strain that infected hospitals , city councils , and ICS firms in January . The hackers made over $ 300,000 from those attacks . One of the victims , an Indiana hospital agreed to payAttack.Ransoma $ 55,000 ransom demandAttack.Ransomdespite having backups . Hospital officials said it was easier and faster to pay the ransomAttack.Ransomthan restore all its computers ' data from backups . DOT officials said they do n't intend to follow suit by paying the ransom demandAttack.Ransomand they will restore from backups . SamSam ransomware making a comeback The SamSam ransomware is a ransomware strain that 's been deployed by a single group . Infection occurs after attackers gain access to a company 's internal networks by brute-forcing RDP connections . Attackers then try to gain access to as many computers on the same network as possible , on which they manually run the SamSam ransomware to encrypt files . In the recent campaigns , SamSam operators usually asked forAttack.Ransoma 1 Bitcoin ransomAttack.Ransomand left a message of `` I 'm sorry '' on victims ' computers . The SamSam group had been previously active in the winter of 2016 but have come back with new attacks . These new attacks have been detailed in reports published by Bleeping Computer , Secureworks , and Cisco Talos .
A new band of hackers , styling itself the “ Turkish Crime Family ” , is claiming it has secured the details of some 200m iCloud accounts and that if Apple doesn’t payAttack.Ransoma whopping $ 75,000 bitcoin or ethereum ransomAttack.Ransom( or $ 100,000 in iTunes gift cards ) it will wipe the lot . First , Apple says its systems haven’t been breachedAttack.Databreach. The company told Naked Security : There have not been any breachesAttack.Databreachin any of Apple ’ s systems including iCloud and Apple ID . The alleged list of email addresses and passwords appears to have been obtainedAttack.Databreachfrom previously compromisedAttack.Databreachthird-party services . So 200m accounts obtainedAttack.Databreachfrom previously compromisedAttack.Databreachthird party services is OK ? Obviously not , but there ’ s no suggestion that Apple itself is responsible for any compromised security . The Turkish Crime Family itself appears to be new on the security scene , believed to have started life in Istanbul but now resident in Green Lanes , north London , according to one report . Helpfully , the organisation has a Twitter account . Another curious facet of the alleged breach is that asking for paymentAttack.Ransomin extremely traceable iTunes vouchers seems more than slightly curious ; why would you not ask for something with a less clean audit trail ? The group itself disputes the amount that ’ s been reported and blames a media relations operative ( presumably the same one who put an email address for media inquiries on the Twitter profile ) : This sum of $ 75,000 is incorrect , this was submitted by one of our old media guys that is not a part of our group . The sum is a lot higher The organisation has posted what it claims is video evidence to the Motherboard site . David Kennerley , director of threat research at Webroot , is among the first to wonder whether the threat is actually real . There are a lot of questions that need to be answered such as , do these hackers really have accessAttack.Databreachto the data they claim ? How did they get hold of such a large amount of data ? Finally , there are still people who believe their Apple hardware is completely safe from malware just because it ’ s Apple . It ’ s great kit and it works beautifully but nobody is safe Logging into and erasing 200 million accounts would take some time . If it started happening , Apple could easily block the attack . Also , they ’ d have to have some sort of server or admin-level access to be able to wipe or delete accounts , or even a single server ’ s-worth of accounts . The Turkish Crime Family having that level of access would either entail an incredibly serious , hitherto unknown breach in Apple ’ s defenses ( improbable ) , or the help of someone on the inside ( more likely , but still doubtful ) . If an Apple user wasn ’ t backing up their entire device to the Apple Cloud , a device that was wiped wouldn ’ t have everything for Apple to restore . I suspect there are quite a few users that don ’ t do Cloud backups , or only back up a portion of their data .
Nearly half of businesses report that they were the subject of a cyber-ransom campaignAttack.Ransomin 2016 , according to Radware 's Global Application and Network Security Report 2016-2017 . Data loss topped the list of IT professionals ' cyber attack concerns , the report found , with 27 % of tech leaders reporting this as their greatest worry . It was followed by service outage ( 19 % ) , reputation loss ( 16 % ) , and customer or partner loss ( 9 % ) . Malware or bot attacks hit half of all organizations surveyed in the last year . Some 55 % of respondents reported that IoT ecosystems had complicated their cybersecurity detection measures , as they create more vulnerabilities . Ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomin particular continue to increase rapidly : 41 % of respondents reported that ransomAttack.Ransomwas the top motivator behind the cyber attacks they experienced in 2016 . Meanwhile , 27 % of respondents cited insider threats , 26 % said political hacktivism , and 26 % said competition . SEE : HR managers beware : Ransomware could be your next job applicant While large-scale DDoS attacks dominated the headlines of 2016 , this report found that only 4 % of all attacks were more than 50 Gbps , while more than 83 % of DDoS attacks reported were under 1 Gbps . `` One thing is clear : Money is the top motivator in the threat landscape today , '' said Carl Herberger , vice president of security solutions at Radware , in a press release . `` Attackers employ an ever-increasing number of tactics to stealAttack.Databreachvaluable information , from ransom attacksAttack.Ransomthat can lock up a company 's data , to DDoS attacks that act as a smoke screen for information theftAttack.Databreach, to direct brute force or injection attacks that grant direct accessAttack.Databreachto internal data . '' Despite the growth in attacks , some 40 % of organizations reported that they do not have an incident response plan in place , the survey found .
A California financing company exposedAttack.Databreachup to 1 million records online that contained names , addresses , fragments of Social Security numbers and data related to vehicle loans , according to a researcher 's report . The data comes from Alliance Direct Lending , which is based in Orange , California , writes Bob Diachenko , who works with the security research team at Kromtech Alliance Corp. of Germany . Alliance Direct Lending specializes in refinancing auto loans at a lower interest rate , and it also has partnerships with dealers across the country . `` It is unclear if anyone other than security researchers accessed it or how long the data was exposedAttack.Databreach, '' Diachenko writes in a blog post . Security researchers , as well as hackers , have had a field day lately exposing configuration mistakes organizations have made when setting up databases . Despite a string of well-publicized findings , the errors are still being made , or at least , not being caught . Aside from breachesAttack.Databreach, other organizations have seen their data erased and held for ransomAttack.Ransom, with notes left inside the databases asking for bitcoinsAttack.Ransom( see Database Hijackings : Who 's Next ? ) . Kromtech notified Alliance , which has since taken the data offline , Diachenko writes . Information Security Media Group 's efforts to reach Alliance officials were not immediately successful . Under California 's mandatory data breachAttack.Databreachnotification law , Alliance would be required to report the breachAttack.Databreach. `` The IT administrator claimed that it had only recently been leakedAttack.Databreachand was not was not up for long , '' Diachenko writes . `` He thanked us for the notification and the data was secured very shortly after the notification call . '' Researchers came across the data while looking into Amazon Web Services Simple Storage Service ( S3 ) `` buckets , '' which is the term for storage instances on the popular cloud hosting service . They were specifically hunting for buckets that had been left online but required no authentication . The bucket contained 1,000 items , of which 210 were public . The leaked data included .csv files listed by dealerships located around the country . The number of consumer details leaked ranges between 550,000 up to 1 million , Diachenko writes . A screenshot posted on Kromtech 's blog shows a sampling of the dealerships affected . Kromtech shared with ISMG a data sample pertaining to a dealership in Michigan . It shows full names , addresses , ZIP codes , what appear to be FICO credit scores , an annual percentage rate and the last four digits of Social Security numbers . `` The danger of this information being leakedAttack.Databreachis that cybercriminals would have enough to engage in identity theft , obtainAttack.Databreachcredit cards or even file a false tax return , '' Diachenko writes . While full Social Security numbers weren't exposedAttack.Databreach, there 's still a risk in leakingAttack.Databreachthe last four digits . When trying to verify customers ' identities , companies will sometimes ask for a fragment of data . So for fraudsters compiling dossiers , every bit , however incomplete , helps . Also exposedAttack.Databreachwere 20 phone call recordings with customers who were negotiating auto loan deals . `` These consent calls were the customers agreeing that they understood they were getting an auto loan , confirming that the information was correct and true , '' Diachenko writes . `` They included the customer 's name , date of birth , social security numbers , and phone numbers . '' The bucket was last modified on Dec. 29 , 2016 , Kromtech writes . Amazon has strong security built around S3 storage , so it would appear that whomever created the bucket might have disabled its controls . According to Amazon 's guidance , `` only the bucket and object owners originally have access to Amazon S3 resources they created . '' Amazon also has identity and access management controls that can be used to carefully restrict who can access and change data . Buckets can also be made off-limits based on HTTP referrers and IP addresses . Managing Editor , Security and Technology , ISMG Kirk is a veteran journalist who has reported from more than a dozen countries . Based in Sydney , he is Managing Editor for Security and Technology for Information Security Media Group . Prior to ISMG , he worked from London and Sydney covering computer security and privacy for International Data Group . Further back , he covered military affairs from Seoul , South Korea , and general assignment news for his hometown paper in Illinois .
New variants of an Android ransomware family have surged over the past six months to some 600 unique versions . That 's a dramatic jump from the 100 variants created between October to the start of December , says Michael Covington , vice president of product strategy for Wandera , which published new data on the ransomware today . The new strains of the mobile ransomware use a range of disguises to avoid detection . The SLocker variations are repackaged as altered icon , for example , or offer unique resources and executable files . SLocker encrypts images , documents , and videos , as well as blocks access to the device before demanding paymentAttack.Ransomto unlock the phone and its contents . Chief security officers and their teams have reason to worry about the rapid rise in the number of SLocker strains , say security experts . The malware has morphed beyond just locking users ' screens on their Android devices and demanding paymentAttack.Ransom, to taking over administrative rights and controlling the device , including its microphone , speakers , and the camera . Bogdan Botezatu , senior e-threat analyst with Bitdefender , says an Android smartphone infected with SLocker could potentially broadcast highly sensitive information presented during a closed-door boardroom meeting without the user 's knowledge , for example . Wandera 's Covington points to potential risks to sales and consulting staff , for example . `` In a lot of situations where the employees work out in the field like in sales or consulting , it can have a massive impact on their business if they are locked out of their phone and data , '' he explains . Victim organizations paidAttack.Ransoman estimated $ 10 million in ransomAttack.Ransomto unlock confidential data stored on Android phones that fell victim to SLocker , according to Wandera 's report . Android ransomware first emerged in 2014 , after creators of the Reveton/IcePol ransomware for PCs turned their attention to Android devices and cooked up the Android.Trojan . Koler.A and then later Android.Trojan.SLocker , according to Bitdefender 's Botezatu . For the first two years , SLocker was among the top 20 Android malware families and then shot up to the top 10 in 2016 , notes Botezatu . `` Its rise to the top 10 was mostly because of the frustration factor . It 's a psychological thing when people ca n't get information from their smartphone , '' he says . `` People were willing to pay the ransomAttack.Ransom. The mobile device is more personal than the personal computer . '' But now SLocker ranks in the No . 14 to No . 18 spot among the top 20 Android malware families , as cyberthieves create new types of Android malware and enlarge the pool of contenders and dilute SLocker 's influence , Botezatu says .
Ransomware , a special version of trojan that encrypts files , has become a new and tremendously growing type of cybercrime . The 2016 Ransomware Report released by 360 Security Center lately presents that : – 4.9 million computers were attacked in China – 56,000 ransomware infections worldwide only in March 2016 – $ 1 billion dollar source of income for cyber criminals estimated by FBI – Almost half of organizations have been hit with ransomware In January 2016 , three Indian banks ’ and a pharmaceutical company ’ s computer systems were infectedAttack.Ransomby ransomware . The attacker asked forAttack.Ransom1 bitcoin ( about $ 905 ) for each infected computer , and then used unprotected desktop interface to infect other connected computers from remote . These corps lost several million dollars due to the huge number of infected computers . February 5th 2016 , Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paidAttack.Ransoma $ 17,000 ransomAttack.Ransomin bitcoin to a hacker who seized control of the hospital ’ s computer systems and would give back access only when the money was paidAttack.Ransom. Two hospitals in Ottawa and in Ontario were attacked by ransomware later on . In February 2016 , several schools ’ computer systems were attacked by ransomware . The hacker took control of the intranet and servers , and asked forAttack.Ransom20 bitcoin . These school ended up payingAttack.Ransomthe anonymous hacker $ 8,500 to get their IT systems back . In the mid-February , a new ransomware “ Locky ” started to spread out via email . 7 out of 10 malicious email attachments delivered Locky in Q2 2016 . Once users activated the file attached in the email , their files were encrypted and had to payAttack.Ransomthe distributor a certain ransomAttack.Ransomto decrypt these files . May 2016 , a series of ransomware attacks on the House of Representatives have led US congress to ban using Yahoo Mail and Google hosted-apps , and warned their members about being caution of Internet security . In October , 2016 , 277 ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomwere reported to Government Computer Emergency Response Team in Hong Kong , China . Most of the malware were hidden in email attachments and disguised asAttack.Phishingbills or receipts to trickAttack.Phishingusers to click . The victims included the Marine Department of Hong Kong and Deloitte , one of the biggest accounting firms in the world . In November 2016 , other than emails , Locky began to transmit through social networks such as Facebook , LinkedIn with images contained malicious application . The file could be automatically downloaded while users were browsing , and installed once users clicked to check . November 2016 , San Francisco public transportation system Muni was hacked and requested forAttack.Ransoma $ 73,000 ransomAttack.Ransomin bitcoin to get back encrypted data . SFMTA ( The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority ) refused to payAttack.Ransomthe ransomAttack.Ransomand shut down the fair system . We can see that ransomeware is terrifying and collecting money illegally around the world . However , it ’ s almost impossible to decrypt the infected files by yourself , even for people with high information technology skills .
Ransomware , a special version of trojan that encrypts files , has become a new and tremendously growing type of cybercrime . The 2016 Ransomware Report released by 360 Security Center lately presents that : – 4.9 million computers were attacked in China – 56,000 ransomware infections worldwide only in March 2016 – $ 1 billion dollar source of income for cyber criminals estimated by FBI – Almost half of organizations have been hit with ransomware In January 2016 , three Indian banks ’ and a pharmaceutical company ’ s computer systems were infectedAttack.Ransomby ransomware . The attacker asked forAttack.Ransom1 bitcoin ( about $ 905 ) for each infected computer , and then used unprotected desktop interface to infect other connected computers from remote . These corps lost several million dollars due to the huge number of infected computers . February 5th 2016 , Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paidAttack.Ransoma $ 17,000 ransomAttack.Ransomin bitcoin to a hacker who seized control of the hospital ’ s computer systems and would give back access only when the money was paidAttack.Ransom. Two hospitals in Ottawa and in Ontario were attacked by ransomware later on . In February 2016 , several schools ’ computer systems were attacked by ransomware . The hacker took control of the intranet and servers , and asked forAttack.Ransom20 bitcoin . These school ended up payingAttack.Ransomthe anonymous hacker $ 8,500 to get their IT systems back . In the mid-February , a new ransomware “ Locky ” started to spread out via email . 7 out of 10 malicious email attachments delivered Locky in Q2 2016 . Once users activated the file attached in the email , their files were encrypted and had to payAttack.Ransomthe distributor a certain ransomAttack.Ransomto decrypt these files . May 2016 , a series of ransomware attacks on the House of Representatives have led US congress to ban using Yahoo Mail and Google hosted-apps , and warned their members about being caution of Internet security . In October , 2016 , 277 ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomwere reported to Government Computer Emergency Response Team in Hong Kong , China . Most of the malware were hidden in email attachments and disguised asAttack.Phishingbills or receipts to trickAttack.Phishingusers to click . The victims included the Marine Department of Hong Kong and Deloitte , one of the biggest accounting firms in the world . In November 2016 , other than emails , Locky began to transmit through social networks such as Facebook , LinkedIn with images contained malicious application . The file could be automatically downloaded while users were browsing , and installed once users clicked to check . November 2016 , San Francisco public transportation system Muni was hacked and requested forAttack.Ransoma $ 73,000 ransomAttack.Ransomin bitcoin to get back encrypted data . SFMTA ( The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority ) refused to payAttack.Ransomthe ransomAttack.Ransomand shut down the fair system . We can see that ransomeware is terrifying and collecting money illegally around the world . However , it ’ s almost impossible to decrypt the infected files by yourself , even for people with high information technology skills .
The 'WannaCrypt ' ransomware has been a worldwide dilemma , impacting many countries . Luckily , the malware only impacts older versions of Microsoft 's operating system -- Windows 10 is not vulnerable . Also immune to WannaCrypt is macOS and Linux distributions . Unfortunately , many people run older versions of Windows , but Microsoft has been very active in issuingVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitypatches for them -- including for the now-unsupported XP . Patches aside , security software can protect vulnerable computers too . In fact , today , Symantec announces that it has successfully blocked almost 22 million WannaCrypt attacksAttack.Ransom. The company even leveraged machine learning in its fight against the ransomware . The company explains that it , `` blocked nearly 22 million WannaCry infection attempts across 300,000 endpoints , providing full protection for Symantec customers through its advanced exploit protection technology . The WannaCry ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomtargeted and affected users in various countries across the globe by encrypting data files on infected computers and demandingAttack.Ransomusers payAttack.Ransoma $ 300USD ransomAttack.Ransomin bitcoin to decrypt their files . The protection of Symantec customers was enabled in part due to the integration of real-time threat intelligence shared across both Symantec Endpoint Protection and the Blue Coat ProxySG , which provided real-time threat awareness across the endpoint , network and cloud . '' Mike Fey , president and chief operating officer at Symantec explains , `` The WannaCry ransomware attackAttack.Ransomis the largest we 've ever seen of its kind and we 're pleased to share that Symantec customers benefited from multiple layers of protection even before it happened , through innovations and new capabilities in our Integrated Cyber Defense Platform . Our proactive network protection and advanced machine learning technologies provided real-time , zero-day , protection for all SEP and Norton customers when WannaCry was released last week . And , our Global Intelligence Network automatically shares WannaCry intelligence between Symantec endpoint , email and Blue Coat network products , providing full protection across all control points , including the cloud . '' While Symantec 's announcement highlights the importance of security software for both home and business users , it should n't distract from the fact that it is also imperative to apply operating system updates in a timely matter . Also important is using supported software . Yes , Microsoft patchedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitythe unsupported Windows XP , but that OS should really not even be in use anymore .
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ’ s homeland security adviser said Monday that the malware that has infected 300,000 computers in 150 countries is “ in the wild , ” but so far has not infiltrated U.S. government systems . Tom Bossert , assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism , said three variants of the malware have been discovered and the U.S. government was closely monitoring the situation with officials in Britain . “ Overall , the U.S. infection rate has been lower than many parts of the world , but we may still see significant impacts in additional networks as these malware attacks morph and change , ” Bossert told reporters at the White House . “ We had a small number of affected parties in the U.S. , including FedEx . As of today , no federal systems are affected. ” Computers across the world were locked up Friday and users ’ files held for ransomAttack.Ransomwhen dozens of countries were hitAttack.Ransomin a cyber-extortion attackAttack.Ransomthat targeted hospitals , companies and government agencies . Cybersecurity experts say the unknown hackers who launched the “ransomware” attacksAttack.Ransomused a hole in Microsoft software that was discovered by the National Security Agency and exposed when NSA documents were leakedAttack.Databreachonline . The Department of Homeland Security is taking the lead on the investigation in the United States . The Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center is keeping the U.S. government informed about classified information concerning the investigation , he said . If Americans follow the patching information issued by the FBI , Microsoft and the Homeland Security Department , they will be protected from the malware and the variants , Bossert said . “ While it would be satisfying to hold accountable those responsible for this hack — something that we are working on quite seriously — the worm is in the wild , so to speak at this point , and patching is the most important message as a result , ” he said . “ Despite appearing to be criminal activity intended to raise money , it appears that less than $ 70,000 has been paid in ransomsAttack.Ransomand we are not aware of paymentsAttack.Ransomthat have led to any data recovery. ” Neither the FBI or NSA would comment Monday . Trump signed an executive order on Friday aimed at boosting the nation ’ s cybersecurity , as well as building and maintaining “ a modern , secure , and more resilient executive branch IT architecture. ” “ The trend is going in the wrong direction in cyberspace , and it ’ s time to stop that trend and reverse it on behalf of the American people , ” Bossert said after that signing last week . “ We have seen increasing attacks from allies , adversaries , primarily nation-states , but also non-nation-state actors , and sitting by and doing nothing is no longer an option. ” Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert announces May 11 that Trump signed an executive order to bolster the government 's cyber security and protect the nation 's critical infrastructure from cyber attacks , during a news briefing at the White House in Washington , D.C .
WCry , the National Security Agency exploit-powered ransomware worm that began spreading worldwide on Friday , had reportedly affected hundreds of thousands of computers before the weekend , but the malware had only brought in about $ 20,000 in ransom paymentsAttack.Ransom. However , as the world returned to the office on Monday , those paymentsAttack.Ransomhave been rapidly mounting , based on tracking data for the three Bitcoin wallets tied by researchers to the malware . As of noon Eastern Time on Monday , payments had reached an estimated $ 71,000 since May 12 . So far , 263 payments have been made to the three wallets linked to the code in the malware . The payment history for each wallet shows individual transactions ranging mostly between 0.16 and 0.34 Bitcoin ( approximately $ 300 and $ 600 , respectively ) , with the number of larger payments increasing over time . Different ransomAttack.Ransomamounts have been presented to victims , and the price of Bitcoin has climbed dramatically over the past week , causing some variation in the payment sizes . According to researchers at Symantec Security Response , tracking ransomAttack.Ransomtransactions would have been much more difficult if not for a bug in code that was supposed to create an individual bitcoin wallet for each victim : # WannaCry has code to provide unique bitcoin address for each victim but defaults to hardcoded addresses as a result of race condition bug — Security Response ( @ threatintel ) May 16 , 2017 Because the code failed , it defaulted over the three preset wallets . This , along with the `` killswitch '' code that was left in the initial wave of WCry malware , may be an indication that the malware was n't yet fully tested when it was launched .
WCry , the National Security Agency exploit-powered ransomware worm that began spreading worldwide on Friday , had reportedly affected hundreds of thousands of computers before the weekend , but the malware had only brought in about $ 20,000 in ransom paymentsAttack.Ransom. However , as the world returned to the office on Monday , those paymentsAttack.Ransomhave been rapidly mounting , based on tracking data for the three Bitcoin wallets tied by researchers to the malware . As of noon Eastern Time on Monday , payments had reached an estimated $ 71,000 since May 12 . So far , 263 payments have been made to the three wallets linked to the code in the malware . The payment history for each wallet shows individual transactions ranging mostly between 0.16 and 0.34 Bitcoin ( approximately $ 300 and $ 600 , respectively ) , with the number of larger payments increasing over time . Different ransomAttack.Ransomamounts have been presented to victims , and the price of Bitcoin has climbed dramatically over the past week , causing some variation in the payment sizes . According to researchers at Symantec Security Response , tracking ransomAttack.Ransomtransactions would have been much more difficult if not for a bug in code that was supposed to create an individual bitcoin wallet for each victim : # WannaCry has code to provide unique bitcoin address for each victim but defaults to hardcoded addresses as a result of race condition bug — Security Response ( @ threatintel ) May 16 , 2017 Because the code failed , it defaulted over the three preset wallets . This , along with the `` killswitch '' code that was left in the initial wave of WCry malware , may be an indication that the malware was n't yet fully tested when it was launched .
Disney boss Bob Iger has said the mass media giant is being targeted by hackers who are trying to extort moneyAttack.Ransomfrom the firm by threatening to release a film they claim to have stolenAttack.Databreach. The CEO of the entertainment behemoth told ABC employees of the stand-off at a town hall meeting in New York , multiple sources told The Hollywood Reporter . The hackers are said to have demandedAttack.Ransoma substantial paymentAttack.Ransomin Bitcoin , and threatened to release five minutes of the unnamed film and then subsequent 20-minute chunks if their demandsAttack.Ransomaren ’ t met . There are rumors circulating that the film in question could be upcoming blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Men Tell No Tales , although the hackers are running out of time if so as it ’ s due to open next Friday . The news calls to mind a similar incident 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 upAttack.Ransom. In that instance , Netflix claimed that “ a production vendor used by several major TV studios had its security compromised ” , highlighting the need for organizations in the entertainment sector to revisit their cyber-defenses and those of their partners . Mark James , security specialist at Eset , argued that anything of high value will be a target for thieves , be it digital or physical . “ Disney has refused to pay the ransomAttack.Ransomand rightly so . If you ’ re going to download the film from an unofficial or dodgy source anyway then a month before or a month after is not going to make much of a difference , ” he added . `` The film industry has been plagued with piracy issues as early as the 1960s and this is n't going to change anytime soon . Paying the ransomAttack.Ransomor indeed any ransomAttack.Ransomis generally frowned upon for many reasons . Funding other criminal activity , rewarding the bad guys or funding future attacks are all good reasons to not pay as the chances are it ’ s going to get released anyway . ”
Developers are once again being blamedVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityfor cloud back-end security vulnerabilities , this time in a new reportVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityfrom Appthority . The company published investigation results that found nearly 43 TB of enterprise data was exposedAttack.Databreachon cloud back-ends , including personally identifiable information ( PII ) . This comes just shortly after a similar report from a different security company . In the new `` 2017 Q2 Enterprise Mobile Threat Report '' report ( free upon providing registration info ) , Appthority found `` data leakageAttack.Databreach`` from mobile apps that send data to unsecured cloud back-ends . While security concerns typically focus on a triad of other factors -- apps , device threats and network threats -- this data leakageAttack.Databreachon the back-end was dubbed the `` HospitalGown '' threat because of that garment 's open back-end . `` In total , we foundVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityalmost 43 TB of data exposedAttack.Databreachand 1,000 apps affectedVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityby the HospitalGown vulnerability , '' Appthority saidVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityin a blog post last week . `` Looking at a subset of 39 apps , we still found 280 million records exposedAttack.Databreach, a total of about 163 GB of data . This is a staggering amount of leaked information , and in some cases represents the entirety of customer or operational data for an enterprise . '' The reportVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityechoes the findings of an earlier reportVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityby RedLock Inc. , which revealedVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilitymany security issues primarily caused by user misconfigurations on public cloud platforms . RedLock claimed it found 82 percent of hosted databases remain unencrypted , among many other problems . As with the RedLock reportVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability, developers were blamedVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityfor the HospitalGown vulnerabilities. `` HospitalGown is a vulnerability to data exposure caused , not by any code in the app , but by the app developers ' failure to properly secure the back-end ( hence its name ) servers with which the app communicates and where sensitive data is stored , '' Appthority said . Unsecured Elasticsearch servers and MongoDB databases were prime targets of a series of ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomearlier this year that generated widespread publicity in the security field . However , that publicity apparently was n't enough to significantly alleviate the issue . `` As our findings show , weakly secured back-ends in apps used by employees , partners and customers create a range of security risks including extensive data leaksAttack.Databreachof personally identifiable information ( PII ) and other sensitive data , '' the report states . `` They also significantly increase the risk of spear phishingAttack.Phishing, brute force login , social engineering , data ransomAttack.Ransom, and other attacks . And , HospitalGown makes data accessAttack.Databreachand exfiltrationAttack.Databreachfar easier than other types of attacks . '' Key findings of the report as listed by the company include : Affected apps are connecting to unsecured data stores on popular enterprise services , such as Elasticsearch and MySQL , which are leakingAttack.Databreachlarge amounts of sensitive data . Apps using just one of these services revealed almost 43TB of exposed data . Multiple affected apps leakedAttack.Databreachsome form of PII , including passwords , location , travel and payment details , corporate profile data ( including employees ' VPN PINs , emails , phone numbers ) , and retail customer data . Enterprise security teams do not have visibility into the risk due to the risk 's location in the mobile app vendor 's architecture stack . In multiple cases , data has already been accessedAttack.Databreachby unauthorized individuals and ransomedAttack.Ransom. Even apps that have been removed from devices and the app stores still pose an exposureAttack.Databreachrisk due to the sensitive data that remains stored on unsecured servers . The company saidVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityits Mobile Threat Team identifiedVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilitythe HospitalGown vulnerabilities with a combination of its dynamic app analysis tool and a new back-end scanning method , looking at the network traffic on more than 1 million enterprise mobile apps , both iOS and Android . As with the misconfiguration problems identifiedVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilityin the RedLock reportVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability, Appthority emphasizedVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilitythat all cases of HospitalGown vulnerabilities were caused by human errors , not malicious intent or inherent infrastructure problems . That human error was especially prevalent in two app implementations investigated by Appthority : Pulse Workspace ( for accessing enterprise network and Web applications ) and Jacto apps ( from an agricultural machinery company ) .
Are you such a video game fanatic that you simply can ’ t wait to get your paws on sneak previews of upcoming hit titles ? If so , your fervour may be fuelling the criminal activities of an unnamed group of who have targeted a developer of highly popular video games . Best known for developing The Witcher series of role-playing video games , CD Projekt Red took to Twitter to announce that it had been approached by extortionists who claimed to have stolenAttack.Databreachfiles from the company , including “ documents connected to early designs for the upcoming game , Cyberpunk 2077. ” CD Projekt Red says it will not pay the ransom being demandedAttack.Ransomby the thieves , who are threatening to release the stolen files to the general public : “ We will not be giving in to the demandsAttack.Ransomof the individual or individuals that have contacted us , which might eventually lead to the files being published online . The appropriate legal authorities will be informed about the situation. ” “ The documents are old and largely unrepresentative of the current vision for the game . Still , if you ’ re looking forward to playing Cyberpunk 2077 , it would be best for you to avoid any information not coming directly from CD PROJEKT RED. ” I applaud CD Projekt Red ’ s refusal to pay a ransomAttack.Ransom. PayingAttack.Ransomextortionists always runs the risk of encouraging blackmailers to strike again , putting not just your own company but others at further risk . No release date has yet been announced by the Polish game studio for Cyberpunk 2077 , which has been in development for years and is keenly anticipated by the game maker ’ s fans . For CD Projekt RED , the danger is not just whether assets belonging to the game leakingAttack.Databreachinto the public domain mess up its marketing strategy . There is also the risk that the gaming community will be unimpressed with any sneak previews of early versions of the game stolenAttack.Databreachby the hackers , and puncture the hype machine . Recent months have seen a rise in attacksAttack.Ransomwhere hackers have threatened to release a company ’ s intellectual property onto the net unless a ransom is paidAttack.Ransom. A month ago , for instance , The Dark Overlord hacking group attempted to blackmail moneyAttack.Ransomout of Netflix , before deciding to leak as-yet unaired episodes of hit TV show “ Orange is the New Black. ” The same hacking group has previously publishedAttack.Databreach180,000 medical records – including insurance and social security numbers , dates of birth , and payment information – after healthcare firms refused to give in to their demandsAttack.Ransom. Most recently , a chain of cosmetic surgeries in Lithuania warned that hackers were threatening to release the personal details of clients , including photographs . Readers with longer memories may recall that in September 2003 , a German hacker leakedAttack.Databreachthe source code of the game Half-Life 2 onto the internet , much to the delight of internet users who had become fed up with waiting for the long-awaited video game . It doesn ’ t matter that it ’ s not credit card data or passwords that are being stolenAttack.Databreach– theft is theftAttack.Databreach. Just because it ’ s a video game ’ s plans and designs that are being held for ransomAttack.Ransomby the hackers doesn ’ t make any difference . The threat is real – and could have a commercial impact on the game ’ s producer . CD Projekt Red should be applauded for being so transparent about what has happened , as it ’ s easy to imagine many firms would rather sweep bad news like this under the carpet . What we need now is for game fanatics to exercise some patience and self-control , and resist the urge to hunt out a game before the manufacturer is ready to release it officially themselves .
The executive director of the organization revealed on Tuesday that their computer systems have been infected with a ransomware by cyber criminals who happen to be “ an international cyber terrorist organization ” . Aimee Fant , the Executive Director of Little Red Door , officially revealed its involvement in the agency ’ s computer system hack in a press release . According to their Facebook post , the attack occurred last week on Wednesday night when the hackers attacked the terminal service and backup driver of Cancer Services ’ computer systems . They managed to access , hack and encrypt the data . After carrying out the hack attack , the notorious gang of cyber criminals demandedAttack.Ransom$ 43,000 ransomAttack.Ransomon Thursday . The press release also revealed that the perpetrators of the crime were gearing up to threaten the family members of living or deceased “ cancer clients , donors and community partners ” . She further informed that the FBI has been contacted to conduct an “ active investigation ” . It is worth noting that a majority of the agency ’ s data is stored in cloud storage . Perhaps , this is why the organization is not willing to pay the ransomAttack.Ransomand believes that “ all funds raised must go to serving families , all stage cancer patients , late stage care/hospice support and preventative screenings , ” instead of cyber criminals .
The IT security researchers at Trend Micro recently discovered malware that has the potential to infect Linux-based servers . The malware , called Erebus , has been responsible for hijacking 153 Linux-based networks of a South Korean web-hosting company called NAYANA . Erebus is a ransomware capable of infecting Linux operating systems . As such , around 3,400 of NAYANA ’ s clients were affected due to the attack with databases , websites and other files being encrypted . The incident took place on 10th June . As of now , NAYANA has not received the keys to decrypt their files despite having paidAttack.Ransomthree parts of the ransomAttack.Ransom. The fourth one , which is allegedly the last installment , is yet to be paid . However , according to NAYANA , the attackers claimed to provide the key after three paymentsAttack.Ransom. According to Trend Micro ’ s report , Erebus was originally found back in September 2016 . At the time , the malware was not that harmful and was being distributed through malware-containing advertisements . Once the user clicked on those ads , the ransomware would activate in the usual way . The initial version of the Erebus only affected 423 file types and did so using the RSA-2048 encryption algorithm , thereby encrypting the files with the .encrypt extension . Furthermore , it was this variant that was using a number of websites in South Korea as a command- & -control ( C & C ) center . Later , in February 2017 , the malware had seemingly evolved as now it had the ability to bypass User Account Control ( UAC ) . For those who may be unfamiliar with UAC , it is primarily a Windows privacy protection system that restricts anyone who is not authorized , to alter the user ’ s computer . However , this later version of the Erebus was able to do so and inject ransomware ever so conveniently . The campaign in which this version was involved demanded a ransomAttack.Ransomof 0.085 bitcoins – equivalent to USD 216 at present – and threatened to delete the files in 96 hours if the ransomAttack.Ransomwas not paidAttack.Ransom. Now , however , Erebus has reached new heights by having the ability to bypass not only UAC but also affect entire networks that run on Linux . Given that most organizations today use Linux for their networks , it is no surprise to see that the effects of the malware are far-reaching . According to Trend Micro , the most recent version of Erebus uses RSA algorithm to alter the AES keys in Windows and change the encryption key as such . Also , the attack is accompanied by a Bluetooth service so as to ensure that the ransomware does not break , even after the computer is rebooted . This version can affect a total of 433 file types including databases , archives , office documents , email files , web-based files and multimedia files . The ransom demandedAttack.Ransomin this campaign amounts to 5 bitcoins , which is USD 12,344 currently . Although ransomware affecting Linux based networks are rare , they are , however , not new . Erebus is not the first ransomware to have affected networks running on Linux . In fact , Trend Micro claims that such ransomware was discovered as far back as in 2014 . Some of the ransomware include Linux.Encoder , Encrypter RaaS , KillDisk , KimcilWare and much more . All of these were allegedly developed from an open-source code project that was available as part of an educational campaign . The ransomware for Linux , despite being somewhat inferior to those for Windows , are still potent enough to cause damage on a massive scale . This is because , a number of organizations and data centers use Linux , and hijacking such high-end systems can only mean catastrophe . To avoid any accidents happening , IT officials and organizations running Linux-based networks need to take some serious precautions . The most obvious one is to simply keep the server updated with the latest firmware and anti-virus software . Furthermore , it is always a good idea to keep a back-up of your data files in two to three separate locations . It is also repeatedly advised to avoid installing unknown third-party programs as these can act as potential gateways for such ransomware . Lastly , IT administrators should keep monitoring the traffic that passes through the network and looks for anomalies by identifying any inconsistencies in event logs .
The IT security researchers at Trend Micro recently discovered malware that has the potential to infect Linux-based servers . The malware , called Erebus , has been responsible for hijacking 153 Linux-based networks of a South Korean web-hosting company called NAYANA . Erebus is a ransomware capable of infecting Linux operating systems . As such , around 3,400 of NAYANA ’ s clients were affected due to the attack with databases , websites and other files being encrypted . The incident took place on 10th June . As of now , NAYANA has not received the keys to decrypt their files despite having paidAttack.Ransomthree parts of the ransomAttack.Ransom. The fourth one , which is allegedly the last installment , is yet to be paid . However , according to NAYANA , the attackers claimed to provide the key after three paymentsAttack.Ransom. According to Trend Micro ’ s report , Erebus was originally found back in September 2016 . At the time , the malware was not that harmful and was being distributed through malware-containing advertisements . Once the user clicked on those ads , the ransomware would activate in the usual way . The initial version of the Erebus only affected 423 file types and did so using the RSA-2048 encryption algorithm , thereby encrypting the files with the .encrypt extension . Furthermore , it was this variant that was using a number of websites in South Korea as a command- & -control ( C & C ) center . Later , in February 2017 , the malware had seemingly evolved as now it had the ability to bypass User Account Control ( UAC ) . For those who may be unfamiliar with UAC , it is primarily a Windows privacy protection system that restricts anyone who is not authorized , to alter the user ’ s computer . However , this later version of the Erebus was able to do so and inject ransomware ever so conveniently . The campaign in which this version was involved demanded a ransomAttack.Ransomof 0.085 bitcoins – equivalent to USD 216 at present – and threatened to delete the files in 96 hours if the ransomAttack.Ransomwas not paidAttack.Ransom. Now , however , Erebus has reached new heights by having the ability to bypass not only UAC but also affect entire networks that run on Linux . Given that most organizations today use Linux for their networks , it is no surprise to see that the effects of the malware are far-reaching . According to Trend Micro , the most recent version of Erebus uses RSA algorithm to alter the AES keys in Windows and change the encryption key as such . Also , the attack is accompanied by a Bluetooth service so as to ensure that the ransomware does not break , even after the computer is rebooted . This version can affect a total of 433 file types including databases , archives , office documents , email files , web-based files and multimedia files . The ransom demandedAttack.Ransomin this campaign amounts to 5 bitcoins , which is USD 12,344 currently . Although ransomware affecting Linux based networks are rare , they are , however , not new . Erebus is not the first ransomware to have affected networks running on Linux . In fact , Trend Micro claims that such ransomware was discovered as far back as in 2014 . Some of the ransomware include Linux.Encoder , Encrypter RaaS , KillDisk , KimcilWare and much more . All of these were allegedly developed from an open-source code project that was available as part of an educational campaign . The ransomware for Linux , despite being somewhat inferior to those for Windows , are still potent enough to cause damage on a massive scale . This is because , a number of organizations and data centers use Linux , and hijacking such high-end systems can only mean catastrophe . To avoid any accidents happening , IT officials and organizations running Linux-based networks need to take some serious precautions . The most obvious one is to simply keep the server updated with the latest firmware and anti-virus software . Furthermore , it is always a good idea to keep a back-up of your data files in two to three separate locations . It is also repeatedly advised to avoid installing unknown third-party programs as these can act as potential gateways for such ransomware . Lastly , IT administrators should keep monitoring the traffic that passes through the network and looks for anomalies by identifying any inconsistencies in event logs .
Hackers are reportedly sellingAttack.Databreachstolen data from the Qatar National Bank ( QNB ) and UAE InvestBank on the dark web . Both the banks suffered major data breachesAttack.Databreachin 2016 and the data of thousands of customers was later leakedAttack.Databreachonline by hackers . Now , even as tensions escalate between the two Middle Eastern nations , cybercriminals appear to be cashing in on the underground cybercrime community . Hackers hitAttack.Databreachthe QNB in April 2016 and the UAE InvestBank in May 2016 . The Sharjah-based InvestBank 's stolen data was leakedAttack.Databreachonline by a hacker going by the pseudonym `` Buba '' , who demandedAttack.Ransoma $ 3m ransomAttack.Ransomfrom the bank . The stolen data , including customers ' financial details as well as personal details such as full names , addresses , passport numbers , phone numbers , account numbers , credit card numbers along with their CVV codes and more was leakedAttack.Databreachonline by the hacker after the bank refused to pay up the ransomAttack.Ransom. In the case of the QNB , a hacker group going by the pseudonym `` Bozkurt Hackers '' claimed responsibility for the data breachAttack.Databreach. Hackers leakedAttack.Databreach1.4GB data , which included customers ' financial records , credit card numbers and PIN codes as well as banking details pertaining to the Al-Thani Qatar Royal Family and Al Jazeera journalists . The stolen data from the QNB hackAttack.Databreachas well as the InvestBank data breachAttack.Databreachis now up for sale on an unspecified yet popular dark web marketplace , HackRead reported . This has not been independently verified by IBTimes UK . InvestBank 's data is allegedly being sold for a mere 0.0071 bitcoins ( $ 18.86 , £14.91 ) . The data on sale includes bank accounts , card details , customer IDs , branch codes as well as account holders ' full names . The stolen and leaked data from the QNB , which the bank later acknowledged may have been accurate , is also on sale for 0.0071 bitcoins . The data listed for sale includes the previously leaked QNB records such as bank accounts as well as card and personal details of customers . Dark web data sales from major breachesAttack.Databreachare not uncommon . In 2016 , a series of major breachesAttack.Databreachaffecting several leading tech firms including LinkedIn and Dropbox , eventually saw hackers sellingAttack.Databreachhacked and stolen databases on the dark web .
The average company had four ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomlast year , paidAttack.Ransoman average ransomAttack.Ransomof $ 2,500 per incident , and spent 42 hours dealing with the attackAttack.Ransom. `` We 're nowhere near the end of the ransomware threat , '' said Norman Guadagno , chief evangelist at Carbonite , which provides continuous automated cloud backup services . Of those who did not pay up , 42 percent said that having a full and accurate backup was the reason . And only 13 percent said their preparedness to prevent ransomware was `` high . '' `` People say , ' I know I should back up , have anti-virus , use strong passwords ' -- but they do n't do it , '' said Guadagno . Only 46 percent of respondents said that prevention of ransomware attacks was a high priority for their company . One reason could be that they do n't think the hackers will bother with them . According to the survey , 55 percent of companies said they thought it was either likely or certain that the ransomware also exfiltratedAttack.Databreachdata from the infected device . Businesses should not only have anti-virus in place to keep ransomware from getting in , but also train their employees to spot potential attacks . According to the survey , only 29 percent of respondents said they were confident that their employees could detect risky links or sites . It just goes to show that you ca n't even trust cybercriminals these days .
Over the past few weeks , hackers have targeted thousands of publicly accessible servers running database software such as MongoDB and Hadoop , and held their data for ransomAttack.Ransom. Now someone is apparently taking matters into their owns hands , helpfully alerting admins that their databases are vulnerable to attack . `` It looks like a friendly warning , '' Victor Gevers , chairman of the non-profit GDI Foundation which disclosesVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilitysecurity issues to affected victims , told Motherboard in a Twitter message . Gevers has been tracking the malicious attacks since they began in December , and on Monday started following this rather strange twist . But the vigilante , whoever they may be , is creating an empty folder called `` your_db_is_not_secure '' in some open databases . So far , the message has been placed into 49 of the 2,641 open databases using the Cassandra software , Gevers told Motherboard . It 's not clear how effective this approach will actually be at informing potential victims , however , considering that database administrators might not even notice the slight change . Gevers recently wrote in a tweet that the GDI Foundation has been informing victims too via email , and another group of security experts tried sending emails en masse automatically to potential targets . If the messages do n't get through to database owners , maybe the ransom notes will
Services are being restored to the St. Louis Public Library computer system after a ransomware attackAttack.Ransomlast Thursday impacted access to machines and data at all 17 branches . Library management refused to payAttack.Ransomthe $ 35,000 demanded as ransomAttack.Ransom, and IT staff wiped affected servers and restored them from available backups . On Friday , the library was able to restart its circulation workflow , and patrons were able to check out books at all locations . By Saturday , checkout and returns systems were at 100 percent availability , and now only the library ’ s reserve system remains to be restored . That work began on Monday and is expected to be up and running shortly . Executive director Waller McGuire said the library immediately reached out to the FBI for help with the investigation , and it ’ s not clear where the infection began , nor how it spread throughout the library network . “ The real victims of this criminal attack are the Library ’ s patrons . SLPL has worked hard to open a secure but widely available digital world to the people of St. Louis , and I am sorry it was interrupted , ” McGuire said in a letter to library patrons published on Monday . “ An attempt to hold information and access to the world for ransomAttack.Ransomis deeply frightening and offensive to any public library , and we will make every effort to keep that world available to our patrons ” . McGuire also said that patrons ’ personal and financial information is not stored on its servers , and none of that data was impacted by the attack . Louis Public Library has been working with the FBI to identify how criminals broke into our system and correct the problem , ” McGuire said . “ I apologize to patrons for any inconvenience this incident has caused : on most days thousands of St. Louis Public Library patrons check out materials and use computers for many purposes ” . A request for additional comment from McGuire was not returned in time for publication . It ’ s unknown which ransomware family was used to attack the library , nor how the infection started . McGuire said in his letter to patrons that criminals broke into the library network and installed malware . This runs contrary to most ransomware infections where the malware is spread in spam or phishing emails enticing the victim to open a malicious email attachment or click on a link in the message that downloads the malware . The St. Louis library is the latest in a growing list of high-profile businesses and public services falling victim to ransomware . Less than a year has passed since the Hollywood Presbyterian attackAttack.Ransom, in which a $ 17,000 ransom was paidAttack.Ransom, and the Kentucky Methodist Hospital attackAttack.Ransom, in which officials reportedly refused to payAttack.Ransom. The University of Calgary also fell victim as have other colleges , universities , local law enforcement and government agencies , and entertainment organizations .
Researchers say a piece of ransomware disguised asAttack.Phishinga battery app made its way into the Play store . Check Point says one of its customers contracted the malware app , dubbed `` Charger , '' after installing what they thought was a battery monitoring tool called EnergyRescue . Researchers with Check Point Mobile Threat Prevention say the malware activates when EnergyRescue runs , and requires admin access to the device . Once that permission is granted , the malware checks for location ( it does not attack phones in the Ukraine , Belarus , or Russia ) , then swipesAttack.Databreachall user contacts and SMS messages and locks down the device . From there , the user is told that they must pay to deactivateAttack.Ransomthe ransomware or they will have their full details spaffed out for various nefarious activities , including bank fraud and spam . `` You need to payAttack.Ransomfor us , otherwise we will sell portion of your personal information on black market every 30 minutes , '' the ransomware tells users . Not ones to be unprofessional , the Charger operators attempt to reassure their victims by offering a `` 100 % guarantee '' that once the 0.2 Bitcoin ransomAttack.Ransom( currently around $ 183 ) is paidAttack.Ransom, all the collected information will be deleted and the device unlocked. `` The ransom demandAttack.Ransomfor 0.2 Bitcoins is a much higher ransom demandAttack.Ransomthan has been seen in mobile ransomware so far , '' note Check Point mobile security analysts Oren Koriat and Andrey Polkovnichenko . `` By comparison , the DataLust ransomware demandedAttack.Ransommerely $ 15 . '' Check Point says that thus far it has not spotted any payments being registered to the Bitcoin address used for the ransom collectionAttack.Ransom, so it is unclear how much , if anything , has been made from this operation .
In a development that will do little to address concerns associated with the security of the cryptocurrency market , a new strain of ransomware , hAnt , has infected hundreds of mining rigs in China . The cryptovirus , which some people say first reared its head in August of last year , has primarily focused its attacks on mining farms in China , the country with the highest number of mining farms . The ransomware , in a note written in both English and Chinese , has threatened to turn off the mining unit ’ s fan and compromise its overheating protection and by extension , the safety and integrity of the mining unit . To remove the ransomware , the culprit behind the strain has demandedAttack.Ransomeither a ransomAttack.Ransomof 10 BTC to be paidAttack.Ransomor a malicious software that could potentially infect thousands be downloaded by the victim . Although nobody is sure how these mining rigs came to be infected , it has been suggested by some that tainted rig firmware may have been the culprit . On the other hand , some also believe that the culprit has merely taken advantage of the vulnerability of mining equipment that is usually overclocked by mining pools to boost hash power and processing speeds . Presently , Antminer S9 and T9 devices are the worst affected mining equipment . As of now , there haven ’ t been any reports of the cryptohackers actually going ahead with the threat and destroying mining rigs , which would suggest this being an empty threat . That being said , the mere fact of infection has led to several financial losses accruing from many mining operations shutting down temporarily , mining equipment being reflashed or tainted firmware simply being replaced by a new one . Bitmain , the company that manufactures much of the Antminer equipment , that has come under the attack of hAnt has for its part , came forward and cautioned users against visiting untrusted third-party sites and downloading anything outside of Bitmain . Either way , the development is not good news and does nothing to alleviate concerns associated with the safety and security of cryptocurrency-related operations and services .
Media Prima Berhad 's computer systems have been locked out by cyber attackers who are demandingAttack.Ransommillions of ringgit in ransomAttack.Ransom. The media company , which runs a stable of TV and radio channels , newspapers , advertising and digital media companies was hit by a ransomware attackAttack.Ransomlast Thursday ( Nov 8 ) , The Edge Financial Daily reported . Ransomware is a type of malicious software ( malware ) designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paidAttack.Ransom. The report , quoting a source , said the attackers are demandingAttack.Ransom1,000 bitcoins to release access to the computer systems . This means that the attackers are demanding a ransomAttack.Ransomof RM26.42 million ( S $ 8.71 million ) . Media Prima is listed on Bursa Malaysia 's main board . It operates , among others , three national newspapers , namely New Straits Times , Berita Harian and Harian Metro ; free-to-air television stations , namely TV3 , TV9 , ntv7 and 8TV ; and four radio stations , namely Fly FM , Hot FM , One FM and Kool FM . When contacted , Media Prima group managing director , Datuk Kamal Khalid , declined to comment when asked to confirm whether the company has been hitAttack.Ransomby ransomware . He urged The Star to get in touch with the company 's corporate communications department for comments , and efforts are ongoing to contact the department . The Edge Financial Daily report said it was not immediately known whether Media Prima 's data has been breachedAttack.Databreach, and whether the media group would be suffering financial losses due to the ransomware attackAttack.Ransom. It quoted another source saying that Media Prima 's office e-mail has been affected but that the company has migrated the email to another system . The source reportedly added that Media Prima has decided not to pay the ransomAttack.Ransom.
Two-thirds of police internet-connected CCTV cameras in Washington DC were forced offline in January ahead of the presidential inauguration after a ransomware attackAttack.Ransom. Officials told the Washington Post that 123 out of a network of 187 cameras were affected . The devices are apparently used run by the police to monitor public spaces . The attack targeted 70 % of the storage systems on which camera data is recorded , leaving them out of action from 12 to 15 January , the report claimed . However , the issue was resolved by removing each device ’ s software and reinstalling at each site . There are said to have been at least two forms of ransomware on the system , although local officials have played down the seriousness of the attack . The ransomware was isolated to the CCTV network and didn ’ t affect police investigations or put public safety in jeopardy , according to the report . In related news , police in Texas have lost nearly eight years ’ worth of digital evidence after refusing to pay a ransomware fineAttack.Ransom. The Cockerell Hill Police Department in south Dallas decided after speaking to the FBI not to payAttack.Ransomthe near $ 4000 ransomAttack.Ransomafter discovering the malware in mid-December . The ransomware was introduced to the network via a spam email spoofed to imitateAttack.Phishinga department-issued address . A statement published by WFAA last week has the following : “ This virus affected all Microsoft Office Suite documents , such as Word documents and Excel files . In addition , all body camera video , some in-car video , some in-house surveillance video , and some photographs that were stored on the server were corruptedAttack.Databreachand were lost . No information contained in any of those documents , videos , or photographs was extracted or transmitted outside of the Police Department ” . The files affected date all the way back to 2009 , although the police tried to play down the impact on investigations , claiming that hard copies of all documents and “ the vast majority ” of videos and photographs are still kept on CD/DVD . “ It is unknown at this time how many total digital copies of documents were lost , as it is also unknown how many videos or photographs that could have assisted newer cases will not be available , although the number of affected prosecutions should remain relatively small , ” it noted
It is suspected that Ukrainian-based hackers took the Cockrell Hill Police Department 's server for ransomAttack.Ransomlast month , resulting in the loss of video evidence . The police chief decided not to pay the ransomAttack.Ransomand instead had the server wiped , according to WFAA in Texas . The television station reported that the police chief does not believe this was a targeted attack by terrorists . Cybercriminals are thought to have casted a wide net with spam and an unsuspecting police department employee invited the malware in upon clicking on a link . According to Acronis , the latest update of the Locky crypto-ransomware variant , Osiris , is behind this attack . Acronis ’ New Generation technology that proactively prevents zero-day infections , discovered this new mutation . It currently bypasses all ( to our best knowledge ) antivirus/anti-malware software , including Windows Defender . [ Learn about top security certifications : Who they 're for , what they cost , and which you need . Accoridng to a press release , once the Cockrell Hill Police Department became aware that files on the server had been corruptedAttack.Databreachby a computer virus , they immediately disconnected the server and all computers from the internet and all state database systems and were able to contain the virus . The virus had been introduced onto the network from a spam email that had come fromAttack.Phishinga cloned email address imitatingAttack.Phishinga department issued email address . An internet webpage showed that if the police department paid $ 4,000 in Bitcoin , then the police department 's online contents would be released . The FBI Cybercrimes unit recommended that the police department isolate and wipe the virus from the servers . This virus affected all Microsoft Office Suite documents , such as Word documents and Excel files . In addition , all body camera video , some in-car video , some in-house surveillance video , and some photographs that were stored on the server were corruptedAttack.Databreachand were lost , the police department stated in its release . Files that were affected did go back to 2009 , however hard copies of all documents and the vast majority of the videos and photographs are still in the possession of the Police Department on CD or DVD . It is unknown at this time how many total digital copies of documents were lost , as it is also unknown how many videos or photographs that could have assisted newer cases will not be available , although the number of affected prosecutions should remain relatively small , the press release said
According to Darin Stanchfield , KeepKey founder and CEO , the attack took place on Christmas Day , December 25 , when an unknown attacker had activated a new phone number with Stanchfield 's Verizon account . This allowed the attacker to request a password reset for his Verizon email account , but receive the password reset details on the newly activated phone number . A few minutes later , the attacker had taken over Stanchfield 's email account and proceeded to request password resets for several services where the KeepKey founder had used that email address to register profiles . In no time , the attacker had taken over several of Stanchfield 's accounts on other sites , such as KeepKey 's official Twitter account , and several of KeepKey 's side services , such as accounts for sales distribution channels and email marketing software . In less than an hour after the attack started , the KeepKey CEO had discovered what happened and started working with his staff to regain access to the hijacked accounts , while also blocking the intruder from reaching other KeepKey services . The attacker also contacted the KeepKey staff , offering to provide details about how he hackedAttack.Databreachthe Verizon email account and what he stoleAttack.Databreach. The attacker had also promised to return the stolen data and keep quiet about the hackAttack.Databreachif KeepKey would agree to payAttack.Ransomhim 30 Bitcoin ( ~ $ 30,000 ) . Instead of paying the ransom demandAttack.Ransom, the KeepKey team managed to stall the attacker for two more hours , during which time they regained access to all but one account , the company 's Twitter profile . Since the night of the hack , the company has filed a complaint with the FBI and is now offering the 30 Bitcoin ransomAttack.Ransomas a reward for any clues that lead to the attacker 's arrest . KeepKey was adamant about the attacker not being able to access any of its customers ' Bitcoin access keys stored on its devices . KeepKey is known in the Bitcoin market for manufacturing hardware devices that allow users to store the access keys used to authenticate on Bitcoin wallets . The device , which is a modified USB storage unit , works offline and the keys on it can be accessed only with physical access to the device . In the Christmas security breach , the attacker would have only managed to stealAttack.Databreachhome addresses , emails , and phone numbers from users that have bought KeepKey devices in the past , and not the content of those devices . It is unknown at the time of writing if the attacker used the access over these accounts to stealAttack.Databreachany KeepKey customer data . Nevertheless , as a precautionary measure , the company is offering a 30-day refund policy to all customers that had their details stored in the sales distribution channels and email marketing software accounts that the attacker managed to gain accessAttack.Databreachto . At the start of December , someone had taken over the mobile number of Bo Shen , the founder of Bitcoin venture capital firm Fenbushi Capital , and had stolen at least $ 300,000 worth of Augur and Ether cryptocurrency . Two weeks later , the same hacker took over a mobile number for one of the Ethereum Project 's admins and used it to reset the passwords for various accounts , eventually downloading a copyAttack.Databreachof Ethereum forum database backup , dated to April 2016 . At the time of writing , there are no clues that link the first two attacks with the security breach at KeepKey , despite the similar hacking methods