. The data breachAttack.Databreachhappened at one DocuSign computer system location and has since been contained . While short-lived , the malware was able to obtainAttack.Databreachmany customer and user emails from the DocuSign database . Fortunately , the breachAttack.Databreachwas limited to email addresses ; no documents or further customer information was accessedAttack.Databreachin the attackAttack.Databreach. The attackers have begun sending outAttack.Phishingmalicious emails with the company ’ s branding to DocuSign customers and users . In an alert on the DocuSign website , the company shared that it is tracking these emails which carry a downloadable Microsoft Word document harboring malware to attack the user ’ s system . The email subject line has been known to read : “ Completed : docusign.com – Wire Transfer Instructions for recipient-name Document Ready for Signature. ” How to protect yourself If you are not expecting an email via DocuSign , do not click on the link . If you are expecting a document , but are unsure of the source , you can access your document directly by visiting docusign.com . Every legitimate DocuSign email has a code which the user can enter on the website to access their document . DocuSign has asked that people forward suspicious emails to spam @ docusign.com then delete the email from their inboxes . It is important to remember that DocuSign will never request a customer or user to open a PDF , Microsoft Office document or ZIP file in an email .
City employees in Atlanta coming to work Friday morning were told not to turn on their computers and WiFi at the Atlanta airport was turned off due to a ransomware attackAttack.Ransomthat hitAttack.Ransommunicipal systems on Thursday . As employees walked into city hall for work , they were handed a printed notice telling them to not use their computers until they were cleared by the municipal IT group , the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported . At a news conference Friday afternoon , Atlanta chief operating officer Richard Cox said that the WiFi at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport had been disabled out of `` an abundance of caution . '' The city is still working on mitigating the ransomware and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms did not answer questions from reporters as to whether the attack had ended . `` What we want to make sure of is that we aren ’ t putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound . We want to make sure that we take the appropriate steps , '' she said . Atlanta doesn ’ t know who is behind the attack , the mayor said . The good news is that while “ this is a massive inconvenience to the city , it is not life and death , ” she said . Police , fire and other vital services are still fully functional , Cox said . The attack hit early Thursday morning . Bottoms has repeatedly told employees they should monitor their bank accounts because city officials don ’ t yet know what information was compromisedAttack.Databreachin the attackAttack.Databreach. `` Let 's just assume that if your personal information is housed by the City of Atlanta , whether it be because you are a customer who goes online and pays your bills or any employee or even a retiree , we do n't know the extent , so we just ask that you be vigilant , '' Bottoms said . The ransomware is affecting applications that customers use to pay bills and access court-related information among other things , Bottoms said . The attackers demandedAttack.Ransomthe equivalent of $ 51,000 in digital currency to unlock the system . The city is working with the FBI and local law enforcement to investigate the attack , Cox said . While it has been a difficult two days , Atlanta will in the end prevail , he said . `` The city was around before computers were around , said Cox . `` We ’ ll rise from the ashes , '' he added
Robert Gren was working from home on Friday when , all of a sudden , his laptop stopped working . What he initially thought was just a kink in his computer ’ s software was in fact part of a global ransomware attackAttack.Ransomthat has affected more than 200,000 computers and caused untold havoc from China to Britain . Now , Mr. Gren and the thousands of other victims worldwide face an agonizing choice : either hand over the ransomAttack.Ransom— a figure that has climbed to $ 600 for each affected machine — by a deadline this Friday , or potentially lose their digital information , including personal photos , hospital patient records and other priceless data , forever . “ I ’ m pretty devastated , ” said Mr. Gren , 32 , a manager of an online entertainment business in Krakow , Poland , who has spent almost all of his waking hours since Friday looking for ways to reclaim his digital data . “ I ’ ve lost private files that I have no other way of recovering . For me , the damage has been huge. ” That decision has become even more difficult as cybersecurity experts and law enforcement officials have repeatedly warned people against paying the ransomAttack.Ransomahead of this week ’ s deadline . Aside from dissuading victims from handing over moneyAttack.Ransomthat may help fund further such attacks , they caution that it is not guaranteed the attackers will return control of people ’ s computers even if they payAttack.Ransomthe assailants in bitcoin , a digital currency favored in such ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomthat can be difficult to trace . Officials also note that the attackers , who have yet to been named , have provided only three bitcoin addresses — similar to a traditional bank routing number — for all global victims to deposit the ransomAttack.Ransom, so it may prove difficult to know who has paid the digital feesAttack.Ransom. This haphazard planning has led many victims to hold off payingAttack.Ransom, at least until they can guarantee they will get their data back . So far , roughly $ 80,000 has been depositedAttack.Ransominto the bitcoin addresses linked to the attackAttack.Ransom, according to Elliptic , a company that tracks online financial transactions involving virtual currencies . F-Secure , a Finnish cybersecurity firm , has confirmed that some of the 200 individuals that it had identified , who had paid the ransomAttack.Ransom, had successfully had their files decrypted . Yet that represented a small fraction of those affected , and the company said it still remained unlikely that people would regain control of their computers if they paid the online feeAttack.Ransom. The tally of ransom paymentsAttack.Ransommay rise ahead of Friday ’ s deadline , but cybersecurity experts say the current numbers — both total ransom money paidAttack.Ransomand machines decrypted — are far short of early estimates forecasting that the digital attack may eventually cost victims hundreds of millions of dollars in combined ransom feesAttack.Ransom. “ I predict this may be an epic failure , ” said Kim Peretti , a former senior litigator in the Department of Justice ’ s computer crime and intellectual property division who now is co-chairwoman of the cybersecurity preparedness and response team at Alston & Bird , an international law firm . “ Because of the publicity of this attack and the public ’ s awareness of people potentially not getting their files back , the figures aren ’ t as high as people had first thought. ” For victims of such attacks , the potential loss of personal or business files can be traumatic . In typical ransomware cases , including the most recent hack , assailants sendAttack.Phishingan encrypted email to potential targets . The message includes a malware attachment that takes over their machines if opened . The attackers then demand paymentAttack.Ransombefore returning control of the computers , often through money paid into bitcoin or other largely untraceable online currencies .
Three months on from the global WannaCry cyberattackAttack.Ransom, someone has withdrawn funds acquired when victims paid ransomsAttack.Ransom. Almost three months on from the WannaCry ransomware outbreakAttack.Ransom, those behind the global cyberattackAttack.Ransomhave finally cashed out their ransom paymentsAttack.Ransom. The WannaCry epidemic hitAttack.Ransomorganisations around the world in May , with the file-encrypting malware -- which used a leaked NSA exploit -- attackingAttack.RansomWindows systems . It infected over 300,000 PCs and crippling systems across the Americas , Europe , Russia , and China . The UK 's National Health Service was particularly badly hitAttack.Ransomby the attackAttack.Ransom, with hospitals and doctor 's surgeries knocked offline , and some services not restored until days after the ransomware hitAttack.Ransom. WannaCry continued to claim victims even after the initial outbreak : June saw Honda forced to shut down a factory due to an infection and speed cameras in Victoria , Australia also fell victim to the ransomware . While the attackAttack.Ransomwas certainly high profile , mistakes in the code meant many victims of WannaCryAttack.Ransomwere able to successfully unlock systems without giving into the demandsAttack.Ransomof hackers . A bot tracking ransom paymentsAttack.Ransomsays only 338 victims paidAttack.Ransomthe $ 300 bitcoin ransom demandAttack.Ransom- not exactly a large haul for an attack which infected hundreds of thousands of computers . In the months since the attackAttack.Ransom, the bitcoin wallets containing the money extortedAttack.Ransomby WannaCry were left untouched , but August 3 saw them suddenly start to be emptied . At the time of withdrawal , the value of the wallets totalled $ 140,000 thanks to changes in the valuation of bitcoin . Three separate withdrawals between 7.3 bitcoin ( $ 20,055 ) and 9.67 bitcoin ( $ 26,435 ) were made in the space of a minute at 4:10am BST , accounting for around half of the total value of the extorted funds . Five minutes later , three more withdrawals of between seven bitcoin ( $ 19.318 ) and 10 Bitcoin ( $ 27,514 ) were made in the space of another 60 seconds . Ten minutes later , a final withdrawal was made , emptying the remaining bitcoin from the WannaCry wallets . There 's no official confirmation of who carried out the attack , but both private cybersecurity firms and investigating government agencies have pointed to North Korea as the culprit . A month after WannaCryAttack.Ransom, companies around the world found themselves being hitAttack.Ransomby another fast-spreading cyberattack in the form of Petya , which like WannaCry is still causing issues for some of those affected . Unfortunately , the success of WannaCry and Petya infection rates means many cybercriminal groups are attempting to copy the worm-like features of these viruses for their own ends .
Three months on from the global WannaCry cyberattackAttack.Ransom, someone has withdrawn funds acquired when victims paid ransomsAttack.Ransom. Almost three months on from the WannaCry ransomware outbreakAttack.Ransom, those behind the global cyberattackAttack.Ransomhave finally cashed out their ransom paymentsAttack.Ransom. The WannaCry epidemic hitAttack.Ransomorganisations around the world in May , with the file-encrypting malware -- which used a leaked NSA exploit -- attackingAttack.RansomWindows systems . It infected over 300,000 PCs and crippling systems across the Americas , Europe , Russia , and China . The UK 's National Health Service was particularly badly hitAttack.Ransomby the attackAttack.Ransom, with hospitals and doctor 's surgeries knocked offline , and some services not restored until days after the ransomware hitAttack.Ransom. WannaCry continued to claim victims even after the initial outbreak : June saw Honda forced to shut down a factory due to an infection and speed cameras in Victoria , Australia also fell victim to the ransomware . While the attackAttack.Ransomwas certainly high profile , mistakes in the code meant many victims of WannaCryAttack.Ransomwere able to successfully unlock systems without giving into the demandsAttack.Ransomof hackers . A bot tracking ransom paymentsAttack.Ransomsays only 338 victims paidAttack.Ransomthe $ 300 bitcoin ransom demandAttack.Ransom- not exactly a large haul for an attack which infected hundreds of thousands of computers . In the months since the attackAttack.Ransom, the bitcoin wallets containing the money extortedAttack.Ransomby WannaCry were left untouched , but August 3 saw them suddenly start to be emptied . At the time of withdrawal , the value of the wallets totalled $ 140,000 thanks to changes in the valuation of bitcoin . Three separate withdrawals between 7.3 bitcoin ( $ 20,055 ) and 9.67 bitcoin ( $ 26,435 ) were made in the space of a minute at 4:10am BST , accounting for around half of the total value of the extorted funds . Five minutes later , three more withdrawals of between seven bitcoin ( $ 19.318 ) and 10 Bitcoin ( $ 27,514 ) were made in the space of another 60 seconds . Ten minutes later , a final withdrawal was made , emptying the remaining bitcoin from the WannaCry wallets . There 's no official confirmation of who carried out the attack , but both private cybersecurity firms and investigating government agencies have pointed to North Korea as the culprit . A month after WannaCryAttack.Ransom, companies around the world found themselves being hitAttack.Ransomby another fast-spreading cyberattack in the form of Petya , which like WannaCry is still causing issues for some of those affected . Unfortunately , the success of WannaCry and Petya infection rates means many cybercriminal groups are attempting to copy the worm-like features of these viruses for their own ends .
Three months on from the global WannaCry cyberattackAttack.Ransom, someone has withdrawn funds acquired when victims paid ransomsAttack.Ransom. Almost three months on from the WannaCry ransomware outbreakAttack.Ransom, those behind the global cyberattackAttack.Ransomhave finally cashed out their ransom paymentsAttack.Ransom. The WannaCry epidemic hitAttack.Ransomorganisations around the world in May , with the file-encrypting malware -- which used a leaked NSA exploit -- attackingAttack.RansomWindows systems . It infected over 300,000 PCs and crippling systems across the Americas , Europe , Russia , and China . The UK 's National Health Service was particularly badly hitAttack.Ransomby the attackAttack.Ransom, with hospitals and doctor 's surgeries knocked offline , and some services not restored until days after the ransomware hitAttack.Ransom. WannaCry continued to claim victims even after the initial outbreak : June saw Honda forced to shut down a factory due to an infection and speed cameras in Victoria , Australia also fell victim to the ransomware . While the attackAttack.Ransomwas certainly high profile , mistakes in the code meant many victims of WannaCryAttack.Ransomwere able to successfully unlock systems without giving into the demandsAttack.Ransomof hackers . A bot tracking ransom paymentsAttack.Ransomsays only 338 victims paidAttack.Ransomthe $ 300 bitcoin ransom demandAttack.Ransom- not exactly a large haul for an attack which infected hundreds of thousands of computers . In the months since the attackAttack.Ransom, the bitcoin wallets containing the money extortedAttack.Ransomby WannaCry were left untouched , but August 3 saw them suddenly start to be emptied . At the time of withdrawal , the value of the wallets totalled $ 140,000 thanks to changes in the valuation of bitcoin . Three separate withdrawals between 7.3 bitcoin ( $ 20,055 ) and 9.67 bitcoin ( $ 26,435 ) were made in the space of a minute at 4:10am BST , accounting for around half of the total value of the extorted funds . Five minutes later , three more withdrawals of between seven bitcoin ( $ 19.318 ) and 10 Bitcoin ( $ 27,514 ) were made in the space of another 60 seconds . Ten minutes later , a final withdrawal was made , emptying the remaining bitcoin from the WannaCry wallets . There 's no official confirmation of who carried out the attack , but both private cybersecurity firms and investigating government agencies have pointed to North Korea as the culprit . A month after WannaCryAttack.Ransom, companies around the world found themselves being hitAttack.Ransomby another fast-spreading cyberattack in the form of Petya , which like WannaCry is still causing issues for some of those affected . Unfortunately , the success of WannaCry and Petya infection rates means many cybercriminal groups are attempting to copy the worm-like features of these viruses for their own ends .
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 .
The email-borne attack locked the city ’ s servers and many of the daily business functions , officials said . ( TNS ) -- SPRING HILL , Tenn. — The city was the victim of a recent cyber-attackAttack.Ransom, which caused its computer system to lock with a ransomAttack.Ransomof $ 250,000 . Spring Hill was one of several other local government agencies who were victim to the attackAttack.Ransom, and city officials say they do not believe any citizen or customer account information was stolenAttack.Databreachor compromisedAttack.Databreach. It did , however , temporarily halt any online credit or debit card payments . `` We received a ransomware attackAttack.RansomFriday evening that ended up going in and locking our servers . It affected all of our departments , and we have been in recovery mode ever since [ Sunday ] , '' City Administrator Victor Lay said . `` We 've now been able to , at least minimally , conduct business , although the manual system of paper and pencil seems to work pretty well against those kinds of things . '' Lay added that the `` appropriate government authorities '' have been contacted about the incident , which will meet later this week to discuss an investigation into the incident . He said it was not a `` hack '' per se , but a virus created from a downloadable email attachment , locking the system using an encryption key . `` We 're working through it . Obviously , we chose not to pay the ransomAttack.Ransom. We 're working through the system and it 's going to take us a few days to get things all back to normal , but we 're getting there . ''
The White House has publicly blamed North Korea for a ransomware attackAttack.Ransomin May that locked more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries . `` North Korea has acted especially badly , largely unchecked , for more than a decade , '' Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert said at a White House briefing Tuesday morning . He called the WannaCry attackAttack.Ransoma reckless attack that caused `` havoc and destruction '' by locking vital information away from users , including hospital networks . `` We believe now we have the evidence to support this assertion , '' Bossert said . `` It 's very difficult to do when you 're looking for individual hackers . In this case , we found a concerted effort . '' In an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal on Monday , Bossert wrote that after careful investigation , Washington can say that Pyongyang is `` directly responsible '' for the WannaCry virus . Bossert called the attackAttack.Ransomin which victims received ransom demandsAttack.Ransomto unlock their computers `` cowardly , costly and careless . '' `` The consequences and repercussions of WannaCry were beyond economic , '' he wrote . `` The malicious software hitAttack.Ransomcomputers in the U.K. 's health-care sector particularly hard , compromising systems that perform critical work . These disruptions put lives at risk . '' Bossert is expected to brief reporters on Tuesday about the hacking . NPR 's Elise Hu tells Morning Edition that `` cyberattacks are a way for North Korea to punch above its weight '' and that Pyongyang 's hackers `` have access to global networks and the Internet , and they have some real successes to count . '' Within days of the attack in May , North Korea fell under suspicion . As NPR 's Bill Chappell reported at the time , WannaCry was found to have `` lines of code that are identical to work by hackers known as the Lazarus Group , [ which has ] ... been linked to North Korea , raising suspicions that the nation could be responsible . '' And in October , Britain 's Minister of State for Security Ben Wallace said his government was `` as sure as possible '' that Pyongyang launched the attack . Bossert said in the Journal that President Trump had `` ordered the modernization of government information-technology to enhance the security of the systems we run on behalf of the American people . '' `` We also indicted Russian hackers and a Canadian acting in concert with them . A few weeks ago , we charged three Chinese nationals for hackingAttack.Databreach, theftAttack.Databreachof trade secrets and identity theft . There will almost certainly be more indictments to come , '' he wrote . He said that the administration would continue to use its `` maximum pressure strategy to curb Pyongyang 's ability to mount attacks , cyber or otherwise . ''
Colorado investigators call in FBI , work through the night . Colorado Department of Transportation employees spent a second day offline Thursday as security officials investigated the damage done by a ransomware virus that hijacked computer files and demanded paymentAttack.Ransomin bitcoin for their safe return . The state ’ s Office of Information Technology , which reached out to the FBI for assistance , are still investigating the attackAttack.Ransomand have not paidAttack.Ransoma cent to attackers — nor do they plan to , said Brandi Simmons , an OIT spokeswoman . “ No payments have been made or will be made . We are still investigating to see whether or not files were damaged or recoveredAttack.Databreach, ” she said in an email Thursday . On Wednesday morning , CDOT shut down more than 2,000 employee computers while security officials investigated the attack . The malicious code was a variant of ransomware known as SamSam , Simmons said . McAfee , the security software used by CDOT computers , providedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitya software patch on Wednesday to stop the execution of the ransomware . “ This ransomware virus was a variant and the state worked with its antivirus software provider to implementVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitya fix today . The state has robust backup and security tools and has no intention of paying ransomwareAttack.Ransom. Teams will continue to monitor the situation closely and will be working into the night , ” said David McCurdy , chief technology officer , Governor ’ s Office of Information Technology , in a statement on Wednesday . He added : “ OIT , FBI and other security agencies are working together to determine a root cause analysis. ” SamSam last showed up in January after targeting the healthcare industry . It encrypted files and renamed them “ I ’ m sorry , ” according to a report with security firm TrendMicro . One hospital , Hancock Health in Indiana , paidAttack.Ransom$ 55,000 to get its files back . TrendMicro said the attackAttack.Ransomwasn ’ t due to an employee opening an infected email , but hackers gained access remotely using a vendor ’ s user name and password . “ No one is back online . What we ’ re doing is working offline . All our critical services are still online — cameras , variable message boards , CoTrip , alerts on traffic . They are running on separate systems , ” Ford said . “ The message I ’ m sharing ( with employees ) is CDOT operated for a long time without computers so we ’ ll use pen and paper. ” There ’ s only one Mac computer in the office and it wasn ’ t turned on , Ford said , because “ We ’ re not messing around today . ”
Colorado investigators call in FBI , work through the night . Colorado Department of Transportation employees spent a second day offline Thursday as security officials investigated the damage done by a ransomware virus that hijacked computer files and demanded paymentAttack.Ransomin bitcoin for their safe return . The state ’ s Office of Information Technology , which reached out to the FBI for assistance , are still investigating the attackAttack.Ransomand have not paidAttack.Ransoma cent to attackers — nor do they plan to , said Brandi Simmons , an OIT spokeswoman . “ No payments have been made or will be made . We are still investigating to see whether or not files were damaged or recoveredAttack.Databreach, ” she said in an email Thursday . On Wednesday morning , CDOT shut down more than 2,000 employee computers while security officials investigated the attack . The malicious code was a variant of ransomware known as SamSam , Simmons said . McAfee , the security software used by CDOT computers , providedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitya software patch on Wednesday to stop the execution of the ransomware . “ This ransomware virus was a variant and the state worked with its antivirus software provider to implementVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitya fix today . The state has robust backup and security tools and has no intention of paying ransomwareAttack.Ransom. Teams will continue to monitor the situation closely and will be working into the night , ” said David McCurdy , chief technology officer , Governor ’ s Office of Information Technology , in a statement on Wednesday . He added : “ OIT , FBI and other security agencies are working together to determine a root cause analysis. ” SamSam last showed up in January after targeting the healthcare industry . It encrypted files and renamed them “ I ’ m sorry , ” according to a report with security firm TrendMicro . One hospital , Hancock Health in Indiana , paidAttack.Ransom$ 55,000 to get its files back . TrendMicro said the attackAttack.Ransomwasn ’ t due to an employee opening an infected email , but hackers gained access remotely using a vendor ’ s user name and password . “ No one is back online . What we ’ re doing is working offline . All our critical services are still online — cameras , variable message boards , CoTrip , alerts on traffic . They are running on separate systems , ” Ford said . “ The message I ’ m sharing ( with employees ) is CDOT operated for a long time without computers so we ’ ll use pen and paper. ” There ’ s only one Mac computer in the office and it wasn ’ t turned on , Ford said , because “ We ’ re not messing around today . ”
GREENFIELD — Hancock Health fell victim to a cyber attackAttack.RansomThursday , with a hacker demanding BitcoinAttack.Ransomto relinquish control of part of the hospital ’ s computer system . Employees knew something was wrong Thursday night , when the network began running more slowly than normal , senior vice president/chief strategy and innovation officer Rob Matt said . A short time later , a message flashed on a hospital computer screen , stating parts of the system would be held hostage until a ransom is paidAttack.Ransom. The hacker asked for BitcoinAttack.Ransom— a virtual currency used to make anonymous transactions that is nearly impossible to trace . The hospital ’ s IT team opted to immediately shut down the network to isolate the problem . The attack affected Hancock Health ’ s entire health network , including its physician offices and wellness centers . Friday afternoon , Hancock Health CEO Steve Long confirmed the network was targeted by a ransomware attackAttack.Ransomfrom an unnamed hacker who “ attempted to shut down ( Hancock Health ’ s ) operations. ” Hospital leaders don ’ t believe any personal medical information has been compromisedAttack.Databreach, Long said . Long declined to disclose details of the attackAttack.Ransom, including how much ransom has been requestedAttack.Ransom. The attack amounts to a “ digital padlock , ” restricting personnel access to parts of the health network ’ s computer systems , he said . The attack was not the result of an employee opening a malware-infected email , a common tactic used to hack computer systems , he said . The attack was sophisticated , he said , adding FBI officials are familiar with this method of security breach . “ This was not a 15-year-old kid sitting in his mother ’ s basement , ” Long said . Protecting patients Notices posted Friday at entrances to Hancock Regional Hospital alerted visitors to a “ system-wide outage ” and asked any hospital employee or office using a HRH network to ensure all computers were turned off . Doctors and nurses have reverted to using pen and paper for now to keep patients ’ medical charts updated . Long said he wasn ’ t aware of any appointments or procedures that were canceled directly related to the incident , adding Friday ’ s snowy weather contributed to many cancellations . Most patients likely didn ’ t notice there was a problem , nor did the attack significantly impact patient care , Long said . Hospital staff members worked with the FBI and a national IT security company overnight and throughout the day Friday to resolve the issue . Long said law enforcement has been acting in an “ advisory capacity , ” and declined to release details about the plan going forward , including whether the hospital is considering paying the ransomAttack.Ransom. Long commended his staff , especially IT workers , who quickly identified the problem Thursday evening . “ If I was going through this with anybody , this is the team I would want to go through this with because I know what the outcome is going to be , ” he said . Leaders updated hospital employees , totaling about 1,200 people , throughout the day Friday and took steps to be accommodate both patients and staff , including offering free food in the hospital cafeteria all day , Long said . Long said if there is any suggestion private patient information has been compromisedAttack.Databreach, hospital officials will reach out to those affected , though he doesn ’ t expect that to become an issue . “ We anticipate questions , ” he said . “ This is not a small deal . ”
( 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. ”
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 .
LabCorp experienced a breach this past weekend , which it nows says was a ransomware attackAttack.Ransom. The intrusion has also prompted concerns that patient data may have also been stolenAttack.Databreach. One of the biggest clinical lab testing companies in the world , LabCorp , was hitAttack.Ransomwith a `` new variant of ransomware '' over the weekend . `` LabCorp promptly took certain systems offline as a part of its comprehensive response to contain and remove the ransomware from its system , '' the company told PCMag in an email . `` We are working to restore additional systems and functions over the next several days . '' LabCorp declined to say what variant of ransomware was used . But according to The Wall Street Journal , the company was hitAttack.Ransomwith a strain known as SamSam . In March , the same strain attackedAttack.Ransomthe city of Atlanta 's IT network . Like other ransomware variants , SamSam will effectively lock down a computer , encrypting all the files inside , and then demandAttack.Ransomthe victim pay upAttack.Ransomto free the system . In the Atlanta attackAttack.Ransom, the anonymous hackers demandedAttack.Ransom$ 51,000 , which the city government reportedly refused to payAttack.Ransom. How much the hackers are demandingAttack.Ransomfrom LabCorp is n't clear ; the company declined to answer further questions about the attackAttack.Ransomor if it will pay the ransomAttack.Ransom. The lab testing provider first reported the breach on Monday , initially describing it as `` suspicious activity '' on the company 's IT systems that relate to healthcare diagnostics . This prompted fears that patient data may have been stolenAttack.Databreach. The North Carolina-based company processes more than 2.5 million lab tests per week and has over 1,900 patient centers across the US . `` LabCorp also has connections to most of the hospitals and other clinics in the United States , '' Pravin Kothari , CEO of cybersecurity firm CipherCloud , said in an email . `` All of this presents , at some point , perhaps an increased risk of cyber attacks propagating and moving through this expanded ecosystem . '' On Thursday , LabCorp issued a new statement and said the attackAttack.Ransomwas a ransomware strain . At this point , the company has found `` no evidence of theftAttack.Databreachor misuse of data , '' but it 's continuing to investigate . `` As part of our in-depth and ongoing investigation into this incident , LabCorp has engaged outside security experts and is working with authorities , including law enforcement , '' the company added .
LabCorp experienced a breach this past weekend , which it nows says was a ransomware attackAttack.Ransom. The intrusion has also prompted concerns that patient data may have also been stolenAttack.Databreach. One of the biggest clinical lab testing companies in the world , LabCorp , was hitAttack.Ransomwith a `` new variant of ransomware '' over the weekend . `` LabCorp promptly took certain systems offline as a part of its comprehensive response to contain and remove the ransomware from its system , '' the company told PCMag in an email . `` We are working to restore additional systems and functions over the next several days . '' LabCorp declined to say what variant of ransomware was used . But according to The Wall Street Journal , the company was hitAttack.Ransomwith a strain known as SamSam . In March , the same strain attackedAttack.Ransomthe city of Atlanta 's IT network . Like other ransomware variants , SamSam will effectively lock down a computer , encrypting all the files inside , and then demandAttack.Ransomthe victim pay upAttack.Ransomto free the system . In the Atlanta attackAttack.Ransom, the anonymous hackers demandedAttack.Ransom$ 51,000 , which the city government reportedly refused to payAttack.Ransom. How much the hackers are demandingAttack.Ransomfrom LabCorp is n't clear ; the company declined to answer further questions about the attackAttack.Ransomor if it will pay the ransomAttack.Ransom. The lab testing provider first reported the breach on Monday , initially describing it as `` suspicious activity '' on the company 's IT systems that relate to healthcare diagnostics . This prompted fears that patient data may have been stolenAttack.Databreach. The North Carolina-based company processes more than 2.5 million lab tests per week and has over 1,900 patient centers across the US . `` LabCorp also has connections to most of the hospitals and other clinics in the United States , '' Pravin Kothari , CEO of cybersecurity firm CipherCloud , said in an email . `` All of this presents , at some point , perhaps an increased risk of cyber attacks propagating and moving through this expanded ecosystem . '' On Thursday , LabCorp issued a new statement and said the attackAttack.Ransomwas a ransomware strain . At this point , the company has found `` no evidence of theftAttack.Databreachor misuse of data , '' but it 's continuing to investigate . `` As part of our in-depth and ongoing investigation into this incident , LabCorp has engaged outside security experts and is working with authorities , including law enforcement , '' the company added .
Ransomware creators have attackedAttack.RansomMalaysian media giant Media Prima Bhd and are demandingAttack.Ransombitcoins before they can allow access to the company ’ s compromised computer systems . According to The Edge Markets , which initially broke the news , the hackers struck on November 8 consequently denying the company ’ s employees access to the email system . The hackers are now demandingAttack.Ransom1,000 bitcoins , translating to approximately US $ 6.3 million at current market prices , to reauthorize access . Media Prima did not , however , confirm the attackAttack.Ransomthough sources indicated that the publicly listed company would not be paying the ransomAttack.Ransom. Sources also told The Edge Markets that with access to the office email denied , the media giant had migrated to G Suite , a Google product hosted offsite . It was also not immediately clear whether the company which owns four TV stations , four radio stations and three national newspapers among other media assets had lodged a complaint with the police . Lucrative Business While extortionists have been targeting individuals in the recent past especially by threatening to reveal the porn-viewing habits of their victims , it has generally been more lucrative to target businesses . According to a report by cybersecurity firm Sophos , the SamSam ransomware , which has mostly targeted business enterprises and public bodies , has , for instance , generated its creators bitcoin worth more than US $ 6 million since it emerged three years ago . Some of the high-profile victims of ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomin the recent past have included the Port of San Diego . While the Californian port did not reveal the amount that the hackers demandedAttack.Ransom, it was serious enough that it got the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations , the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard involved . “ As previously stated , the investigation has detected that ransomware was used in this attack . The Port can also now confirm that the ransom note requested paymentAttack.Ransomin Bitcoin , although the amount that was requestedAttack.Ransomis not being disclosed , ” a statement from the Port of San Diego read , as CCN reported at the time . Can ’ t Pay , Won ’ t Pay Another high-profile target of ransomware in the recent past was the Professional Golfers Association ( PGA ) of America . In this case , the hackers encrypted critical files denying access to them just as the golfing body was holding a PGA Championship event as well as preparing for the Ryder Cup .
The Onslow Water and Sewer Authority 's internal computer system , including servers and personal computers , was hit by a ransomware attackAttack.RansomSaturday . The utility said customer information was not compromisedAttack.Databreachin the attackAttack.Databreach, but many of databases will have to be recreated in their entirety . OWNASA said it is coordinating with the FBI , the Department of Homeland Security , the state of North Carolina , and several technology security companies in response to the attack . The safety of the public ’ s water supply and the area ’ s environment are not in danger , the utility said . ONWASA began experiencing persistent virus attacks from a polymorphic malware known as EMOTET on October 4 . The virus was thought to be under control , but when it persisted ONWASA brought in outside security specialists . The specialist continued to work the problem with ONWASA Information Technology ( IT ) staff . At what ONWASA officials said may have been a timed event , the malware launched a sophisticated virus known as RYUK at 3 a.m. on Saturday . An ONWASA IT staffer saw the attack and immediately disconnected ONWASA from the internet . However , the crypto-virus spread quickly along the network , encrypting databases and files . The attack is similar in nature to those experienced by Atlanta , Georgia and Mecklenburg County . lONWASA said it had mulitple layers of computer protection in place , including firewalls and malware/anti-virus software . The defenses of the computer systems at the main office were penetrated . ONWASA has received one email from the cybercriminals , who it said may be based in a foreign country . The email is consistent with ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomof other governments and corporations . OWNASA officials said ransom monies “ would be used to fund criminal , and perhaps terrorist activities in other countries . Furthermore , there is no expectation that payment of a ransomAttack.Ransomwould forestall repeat attacks . ONWASA will not negotiate with criminals nor bow to their demands . The FBI agrees that ransoms should not be paidAttack.Ransom. ONWASA will undertake the painstaking process of rebuilding its databases and computer systems from the ground up. ” The lack of computing ability will affect the timeliness of service from ONWASA for several weeks to come . Initially , the utility will operate manually at all plant and office locations . Water and wastewater service to homes and businesses will not be interrupted , the utility said . Customers may continue to make credit card payments by phone , at ONWASA 's kiosk locations ( by check , cash , or credit card ) , and in person at the main office at 228 Georgetown Road , Jacksonville . Satellite Offices in Holly Ridge , Swansboro , and Richlands have the capability of processing credit card payments by phone and very limited other services . Service orders , account creation , connections , disconnections , development review , backflow program , engineering , and human resources will utilize manual processes until the computer systems are restored . While phone service remains , email service has been interrupted for most of the utility . ONWASA said a team of local , state , and federal agencies are cooperating to restore the utility and bring the criminals to justice .
In the wake of Hurricane Florence disaster , ONWASA , a water utility company has been specifically targeted by cyber criminals . ONWASA provides water and sewer service to all of Onslow County except Jacksonville residents . According to a press release , ONWASA 's internal computer system , including servers and personal computers , have been subjected to a sophisticated ransomware attackAttack.Ransom. The attack has left the utility with limited computer capabilities . CEO Jeffrey Hudson said customer information was not compromisedAttack.Databreachin the attackAttack.Databreach. However , many other databases must be recreated in their entirety . ONWASA is working with the FBI , the Department of Homeland Security , the state of North Carolina and several technology security companies . They are also receiving help from N.C . Senator Harry Brown and N.C . Senator Thom Tillis . Hudson said he believes the attack was a targeted one because the hackers chose a local government that has recently been ransacked by a natural disaster . The hackers struck at 3 a.m. on Saturday -- a time Hudson says was their most vulnerable . The attack is similar in nature to the one experienced in Mecklenburg County last year . Hudson said the damage the attack caused could take weeks or even months to fix . According to ONWASA , the company had multiple layers of computer protection in place , including firewalls and malware/anti-virus software . The defenses of the computer systems at the main office were penetrated . ONWASA has received one email from the cyber criminals , who may be based in a foreign country . The email is consistent with ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomof other governments and corporations . Ransom monies would be used to fund criminal , and perhaps terrorist activities in other countries . There is no expectation that a ransom paymentAttack.Ransomwould stop future attacks . The cyber attackers are demanding paymentAttack.Ransomto decrypt everything that was stolen . ONWASA said it will not `` negotiate with criminals nor bow to their demandsAttack.Ransom. '' Instead , ONWASA will rebuild its databases and computer systems from the ground up .
Cloquet school district has been hit by a ransomware attackAttack.Ransomsecond time in the past three years . The ransomware is a virulent computer malware , which attacks by spreading from one computer to another and locking up the access to the network servers . The ransomware also encrypts the documents and then demands ransomAttack.Ransomfor providing a key to unlock encrypted files . In March 2016 , the previous occasion when the ransomware attacked , the district cancelled the school for one day so as to let the technology staff have time for recovering from the malware . During that attack , the district servers as well as over 600 computers got infected badly . The current attack took place during the summer vacation , and was not as harmful as of last time . As per staff report from T.J. Smith , Cloquet School District Technology Director , the virus has encrypted files available on all the servers except one , this included the network shared drives . However , the attackAttack.Databreachdoes not indicate stealingAttack.Databreachof any information . The virus only encrypted the files , so that the users were not able to open them . Board members of Cloquet School were explained by Smith on 13 Aug , 2018 , that the district only was left with two options other than succumbing to the demands of ransomAttack.Ransomby the hacker - one , trying to recover data with a probability that the data may not be retrieved and then it would be a complete waste of money and time . The second option was to plan out the way of recreating the data and rebuilding the affected servers . Smith , however , advocated for second option as the data lost was not so important and the insurance will help in paying out for recovering the infected servers . Unanimously , the board members also voted for second option , which is recreating the data and rebuilding the affected servers . Besides , the board members suggested hiring a `` forensic '' company to investigate on the ransomware attackAttack.Ransomand determine the source from where the virus has entered . On a brighter side , Smith revealed that the technology staffs have been able to recover some of the lost data , and they are also capable of recreating the data that is unrecoverable . He also commented that the process of recovery will not at any cost affect the commencement of the school session in the month of September .
The city of North Bend , Ore. , was hit with a ransomware attackAttack.Ransomwhich temporarily locked out city workers from their computers and databases . “ One weekend morning a few weeks back all of our servers and things locked up , and we received a ransomware note that asked forAttack.Ransom$ 50,000 in Bitcoin these people would provide us with the code to unlock our computer systems , ” North Bend City Administrator Terence O ’ Connor told The World . Fortunately the city ’ s IT systems were backed up and officials were able to avoid the high ransom demandedAttack.Ransomby the criminals responsible for the attackAttack.Ransom. City officials did , however , call in the FBI to investigate the attack and while they were unable to identify anyone directly involved in the attack , they were able to trace the ransom demandAttack.Ransomto Romania . O ’ Connor added that the attack appeared to be a more sophisticated ransomware where there are two keys needed to unlock your system with one planted in the system and the other is held by the culprit . The city was insured and ended up having to payAttack.Ransomaround $ 5,000 in out of pocket expenses as well as added a firewall security to prevent future attacks .
East Ohio Regional Hospital in Harper 's Ferry , Ohio , and Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling , West Virginia , both got affected by ransomware on the last weekend of November . [ 1 ] Due to this incident , ambulance patients were transported to other hospitals nearby and emergency room admissions were limited to walk-up patients only . Due to attack , employees needed to switch to paper charting and various systems were taken offline immediately . This fairly quick response limited the ransomware damage and prevented the possible data breachAttack.Databreach. [ 2 ] According to Karin Janiszewski , director of marketing and public relations for EORH and OVMC , hospitals reacted as soon as possible and , at the moment of writing , they are already using the computer network . On the following Saturday , Karin Janiszewski stated : There has been no patient information breachAttack.Databreach. The hospitals are switching to paper charting to ensure patient data protection . We have redundant security , so the attack was able to get through the first layer but not the second layer . IT staff dealt with the outbreak to avoid a data breachAttack.DatabreachWhen it comes to malware attacks on large companies , the lossAttack.Databreachof personal customer data is the worst thing that can happen . It seems that this time the situation was handled quick enough to prevent having the sensitive data being compromisedAttack.Databreach. IT team took several computers offline , and , because of this , most of the clinical operations transferred to other units , and emergency patients were automatically taken to different locations . On Saturday , when the incidents occurred , hospital officials stated that the staff is ready to take everything on paper until the downtime is over . Also , since this is a ransomware-type malware attackAttack.Ransom, hackers demand a ransomAttack.Ransom. However , officials did not select the scenario involving making the paymentAttack.Ransom. No matter how big or how little the ransom demandAttack.Ransomis , officials should n't even consider making the paymentAttack.Ransombecause it may lead to system damage or permanent data loss . [ 3 ] In the United States , data breachesAttack.Databreachand malware attacks on huge organizations have become a common thing , especially in the healthcare industry . In 2016 Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital paid the demanded ransomAttack.Ransomin Bitcoin after having its data encrypted . [ 4 ] The infection was widespread and the attackAttack.Ransomcost around $ 17 000 . Another incident that resulted in ransom paymentAttack.Ransomwas spotted in Kansas Heart Hospital in 2016 also . Unfortunately , after the payment was madeAttack.Ransom, attackers disappeared ignoring the promise to decrypt locked files . They send yet another ransom demandAttack.Ransominstead and asked forAttack.Ransoma bigger amount of money . Previously this year , the Indiana-based hospital got infected with SamSam which is an infamous ransomware virus which has been relying on specific infection tactics which is highly personalized . After considering different scenarios , the hospital decided to payAttack.Ransom4 BTC ( equal to $ 45 000 at that time ) for ransomware developers to get private keys needed for files ' recovery . Ransomware developers gave what they promised .
Buzz60 A view of the Kremlin in Moscow on Jan. 6 , 2017 . Russia 's alleged use of computer hacking to interfere with the U.S. presidential election fits a pattern of similar incidents across Europe for at least a decade . Cyberattacks in Ukraine , Bulgaria , Estonia , Germany , France and Austria that investigators attributed to suspected Russian hackers appeared aimed at influencing election results , sowing discord and undermining faith in public institutions that included government agencies , the media and elected officials . Those investigations bolster U.S. intelligence findings of Russian meddling to help elect Donald Trump , a conclusion the president-elect has disputed — although he conceded Friday after a private intelligence briefing that Russia was among the possible hacking culprits . “ They ’ ve been very good at using the West ’ s weaknesses against itself , the open Internet to hack , the free media to sow discord , and to cause people to question the underpinnings of the systems under which they live , ” said Hannah Thoburn , a research fellow at the Hudson Institute , a Washington think tank . U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper told a Senate committee Thursday that Russian intelligence hackers , masquerading as third parties , have conducted attacks abroad that targeted critical infrastructure networks . “ Russia also has used cyber tactics and techniques to seek to influence public opinion across Europe and Eurasia , ” Clapper said . A declassified intelligence report on the Russian hacking released Friday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering the effort to help elect Trump . It warned that Russia would use lessons learned from the effort to disrupt elections of U.S. allies . USA TODAY Intel chiefs : We 're certain that Russia tried to influence U.S. election In 2007 , Putin told the Munich Security Conference that the United States ’ effort to spread its form of democracy was an insidious threat to Russia and other nations and that his government would push back . Russian sabotage of Western computer systems started that same year . In 2007 , Estonia accused hackers using Russian IP addresses of a wide-scale denial of service attack that shut down the Internet in the former Soviet republic and one of NATO ’ s newest members . According to The Guardian newspaper , the attacks came in waves that coincided with riots on May 3 , 2007 , over the statue , whose removal drew objections from Russia and Russian-speaking Estonians , and on May 8 and 9 , when Russia celebrated its victory over Nazi Germany . They blamed the attacks on a pro-Russia group called CyberBerkut . Hudson analyst Thoburn , who was working as an election observer in Ukraine at the time , said the Ukrainians were able to get around it by deleting their entire system and restoring it from a backup that was not contaminated . Ukrainian officials have also accused Russia of being behind a power grid attack in December 2015 that cut power to 80,000 in western Ukraine . In overt actions against Ukraine , Russia seized the province of Crimea in 2014 and helped armed separatists launch a rebellion in eastern Ukraine . German intelligence in 2015 accused Russia of hackingAttack.Databreachat least 15 computers belonging to members of Germany ’ s lower house of parliament , the Bundestag , and stealing dataAttack.Databreach. Germany ’ s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution ( BfV ) said the attackAttack.Databreachwas conducted by a group called Sofacy , which “ is being steered by the Russian state . '' BfV chief Hans-Georg Maassen told Reuters in November that Moscow has tried to manipulate the media and public opinion through various means , including planting false stories . One in 2015 by Russian media was about a German-Russian girl kidnapped and raped by migrants in Berlin . German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she could not rule out Russian interference in Germany 's 2017 federal election through Internet attacks and disinformation campaigns . The country 's Central Election Commission had been hacked during a referendum and local elections in 2015 that was almost certainly linked to Russia and a group that had hacked NATO headquarters in Brussels in 2013 , then-President Rosen Plevneliev told the BBC in November . `` The same organization that has attackedAttack.Databreachthe ( German Parliament ) — stealingAttack.Databreachall the emails of German members of Parliament — the same institution that has attackedAttack.DatabreachNATO headquarters , and that is the same even that has tried to influence American elections lately and so in a very high probability you could point east from us ” ( to Moscow ) , Plevneliev said . A pro-Russian political novice was elected in November to replace Plevneliev . The Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe , whose tasks include monitoring elections across Europe and the conflict in eastern Ukraine , was attacked in “ a major information security incident ” in November , spokeswoman Mersiha Causevic Podzic said . The incident “ compromised the confidentiality ” of the organization ’ s IT networks , Podzic said . The French daily Le Monde , which first reported the incident , cited a Western intelligence agency attributing the attack to the Russia-linked group APT28 , aka Fancy Bear , and Sofacy . Russia , a member of the OSCE , has objected to the group ’ s criticism of Russian-backed forces battling the Ukrainian government in eastern Ukraine . Russian hackers posing as the “ Cyber Caliphate ” were suspected of attacking France ’ s TV5Monde television channel in 2014 , causing extensive damage to the company ’ s computer systems , FireEye , a cyber security firm that examined the attack , told BuzzFeed . The attack involved posting of Islamic State propaganda , but appeared to use the same servers and have other similarities with Russian-linked APT28 , the group that is a suspect in attacks on the Democratic National Committee , the OSCE and several other European countries . “ APT28 focuses on collecting intelligence that would be most useful to a government , ” FireEye said . “ Specifically , since at least 2007 , APT28 has been targeting privileged information related to governments , militaries and security organizations that would likely benefit the Russian government ” . The security chief of France 's ruling Socialist Party recently warned that the country 's presidential election this spring is at risk of being hacked . Hackers in 2014 attackedAttack.Databreachthe Warsaw Stock Exchange and at least 36 other Polish sites , stealing dataAttack.Databreachand posting graphic images from the Holocaust . The group that claimed responsibility , CyberBerkut , is the same Russian-linked group that attacked Ukrainian sites . The group , posing as Islamic radicals , stoleAttack.Databreachdata and releasedAttack.Databreachdozens of client log-in data , causing mayhem for the exchange , according to Bloomberg News . Dan Wallach , a computer scientist at Rice University who testified about election computer security on Capitol Hill in September , said definitive proof of who conducted an attack would reveal methods and sources who would be lost or killed if exposed . “ You ’ re never going to have definitive attribution , ” Wallach said in an interview . “ The proof is some crazy top secret thing and not for public dissemination ” .
The world governing body of track and field says it has become the victim of a cyberattack by a Russian hacking group linked to other incidents , including the hacking of the World Anti-Doping Agency and the U.S. Democratic Party . In an April 3 statement , the International Association of Athletics Federations ( IAAF ) attributed the attack to the Fancy Bear group . It said it believed the attackAttack.Databreach`` has compromisedAttack.Databreachathletes ' Therapeutic Use Exemption ( TUE ) applications stored on IAAF servers '' during an unauthorized remote accessAttack.Databreachto its network on February 21 . Fancy Bear began postingAttack.Databreachmedical records of Olympians online last year , with U.S. and British athletes making up a large proportion of those targeted . Only selected records were releasedAttack.DatabreachThe IAAF said it contacted Context Information Security , a British security company , in January to undertake a technical investigation of its systems . The company says that investigation `` led to the discovery of a sophisticated intrusion . '' IAAF President Sebastian Coe said his organization will continue to do all it can to `` to remedy the situation and work with the world 's best organizations to create as safe an environment as we can . '' Fancy Bear gained widespread notoriety last year when cyber-researchers identified it and another group -- and they appeared to be linked to Russian intelligence services . They were also said to be behind the hack of the U.S. Democratic Party 's computer systems .
The UK 's Foreign Office was targeted by highly motivated and well-resourced hackers over several months in 2016 . The BBC understands the government has investigated the previously unreported attack that began in April last year . The UK 's National Cyber Security Centre would not say whether data was stolenAttack.Databreach. But a source told the BBC that the most sensitive Foreign Office information is not kept on the systems targeted by the hackers . Research published on Thursday by cybersecurity firm F-Secure suggested the attackAttack.Phishingwas a "spear-phishing" campaignAttack.Phishing, in which people were sentAttack.Phishingtargeted emails in attempts to foolAttack.Phishingthem into clicking a rogue link or handing over their username and password . To do this , the attackers created a number of web addresses designed to resembleAttack.Phishinglegitimate Foreign Office websites , including those used for accessing webmail . F-Secure does not know whether the attack was successful . The company says the domains were created by hackers that it calls the Callisto Group , which it says is still active . However the UK 's National Cyber Security Centre ( NCSC ) declined to say who was behind the attack on the Foreign Office . The targeted emails that were sent outAttack.Phishingtried to foolAttack.Phishingtargets into downloading malware which was first developed for law enforcement by the Italian software company Hacking Team . Hacking Team 's surveillance tools were previously exposed in a cyberattack , first reported in 2015 . There is no suggestion that Hacking Team had any involvement in the attacks . F-Secure said that the use of the software should remind governments that they `` do n't have monopolies on these [ surveillance ] technologies '' , and that once created the software can fall into the hands of hackers . The BBC has not seen evidence conclusively identifying the origin of the attack . A cybersecurity expert at another company , who wished to remain anonymous , found a link to information uncovered in the investigation of Russian efforts to influence the US election . Two of the phishing domains used by the hackers were once linked to an IP address mentioned in a US government report into Grizzly Steppe . Grizzly Steppe is the name given by the US government to efforts by `` Russian civilian and military intelligence services to compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the US election '' . However , the cybersecurity expert noted that this connection between the phishing domain and Grizzly Steppe may be a coincidence , as over 300 other domains - many of them not hacking-related - were linked to the same IP address . F-Secure told the BBC that it did notice some similarity between the Callisto Group 's hacking and previous attacks that have been linked to Russia . However , it said despite some similarities in the tactics , techniques , procedures and targets of the Callisto Group , and the Russia-linked group known as APT28 , it believed the two were `` operationally '' separate . It noted that the Callisto Group was also less `` technically capable '' than APT28 .
TORONTO , April 19 ( Reuters ) - Global hotel chain InterContinental Hotels Group Plc said 1,200 of its franchised hotels in the United States , including Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza , were victims of a three-month cyber attackAttack.Databreachthat sought to stealAttack.Databreachcustomer payment card data . The company declined to say how many payment cards were stolenAttack.Databreachin the attackAttack.Databreach, the latest in a hacking spreeAttack.Databreachon prominent hospitality companies including Hyatt Hotels Corp , Hilton , and Starwood Hotels , now owned by Marriott International Inc . The breachAttack.Databreachlasted from September 29 to December 29 , InterContinental spokesman Neil Hirsch said on Wednesday . He declined to say if losses were covered by insurance or what financial impact the hackingAttack.Databreachmight have on the hotels that were compromisedAttack.Databreach, which also included Hotel Indigo , Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites properties . The malware searched for track dataAttack.Databreachstored on magnetic stripes , which includes name , card number , expiration date and internal verification code , the company said . Hotel operators have become popular targets because they are easier to breachAttack.Databreachthan other businesses that store credit card numbers as they have limited knowledge in defending themselves against hackers , said Itay Glick , chief executive of Israeli cyber-security company Votiro . `` They do n't have massive data centers like banks which have very secure systems to protect themselves , '' said Glick . InterContinental declined to say how many franchised properties it has in the United States , which is part of its business unit in the Americas with 3,633 such properties . In February , InterContinental said it had been victim of a cyber attack , but at that time said that only 12 of its 286 managed properties in the Americas were infected with malware .
Online gaming company Reality Squared Games ( R2Games ) has been compromisedAttack.Databreachfor the second time in two years , according to records obtainedAttack.Databreachby the for-profit notification service LeakBase . The hacker who shared the data with LeakBase says the attackAttack.Databreachhappened earlier this month . Headquartered in Shenzhen , China , R2Games operates a number of free-to-play , micropayment-driven games on iOS and Android , as well as modern browsers . The company currently supports 19 online games , and claims over 52 million players . In December of 2015 , stretching into July of 2016 , more than 22 million R2Games accounts were compromisedAttack.Databreach, exposingAttack.DatabreachIP addresses , easily cracked passwords , email addresses , and usernames . The company denied the breach reports , telling one customer that `` R2Games is safe and secured , and far from being hackedAttack.Databreach. '' The hacker claims all forums were compromisedAttack.Databreach, in addition to the Russian version of r2games.com . The latest record set includes usernames , passwords , email addresses , IP addresses , and other optional record fields , such as instant messenger IDs , birthday , and Facebook related details ( ID , name , access token ) . LeakBase shared the most recent records with Troy Hunt , a security researcher and owner of the non-profit breach notification website `` Have I Been Pwned ? '' ( HIBP ) . Hunt checked the data by testing a small sample of email addresses and usernames against the password reset function on R2Games . Every address checked was confirmed as an existing account . From there , Hunt did some number crunching . There were 5,191,898 unique email addresses in the data shared by LeakBase . However , 3,379,071 of those email addresses were using mail.ar.r2games.com or mail.r2games.com ; and another 789,361 looked generated , as they were all [ number ] @ vk.com addresses . LeakBase speculates that the r2games.com addresses are the result of registrations from third-party services . After stripping the questionable addresses Hunt was left with 1,023,466 unique email addresses to load into HIBP . Of this set , 482,074 have been seen before in other breaches , leaving 541,392 new entries for his index – and new notifications for 1,105 subscribers . When asked about the passwords , Hunt told Salted Hash many of them are MD5 with no salt , but a large number of them have a hash corresponding to the password `` admin '' and a few hundred thousand others are using the plain text word `` sync '' . `` The observation I 'd make here is that clearly , they do n't seem to be learning from previous failures . The prior incident should really have been a wake-up call and to see a subsequent breach not that long after is worrying . Perhaps the prior denials are evidence that they just do n't see the seriousness in security , '' Hunt said , when asked his opinion about the latest R2Games data breachAttack.Databreach. Salted Hash reached out to R2Games , but the company did n't respond to questions . Emails were sent to support , as well as recruiting and sales , on the off chance someone could direct them to the proper resources . For their part , LeakBase said since this data breachAttack.Databreachis n't in the public domain , they will not add the records to their service and it will not be searchable . However , they do plan to email impacted users and inform them of the incident . HIBP has been updated , and those changes are live now . If you 're an R2Games player , it might be wise to change your password and make sure the old password is n't used on any other websites . Also , keep an eye out for gaming related offers and emails , as well as `` notifications '' from domains that are n't related to R2Games itself - as those could be scammers looking to cash-in on the breach . While the hacked data is n't public yet , there 's nothing preventing the person who shared it with LeakBase from selling it or trading it .
The Russian hacking group blamed for targeting U.S. and European elections has been breaking intoAttack.Databreachemail accounts , not only by trickingAttack.Phishingvictims into giving up passwords , but by stealingAttack.Databreachaccess tokens too . It 's sneaky hack that 's particularly worrisome , because it can circumvent Google 's 2-step verification , according to security firm Trend Micro . The group , known as Fancy Bear or Pawn Storm , has been carrying out the attackAttack.Phishingwith its favored tactic of sending outAttack.Phishingphishing emails , Trend Micro said in a report Tuesday . The attackAttack.Phishingworks by sending outAttack.Phishinga fake email , pretending to beAttack.Phishingfrom Google , with the title “ Your account is in danger. ” An example of a phishing email that Fancy Bear has usedAttack.Phishing. The email claims that Google detected several unexpected sign-in attempts into their account . It then suggests users install a security application called “ Google Defender. ” However , the application is actually a ruse . In reality , the hacking group is trying to dupeAttack.Phishingusers into giving up a special access token for their Google account , Trend Micro said . Victims that fall for the scheme will be redirected to an actual Google page , which can authorize the hacking group 's app to view and manage their email . Users that click “ allow ” will be handing over what ’ s known as an OAuth token . Although the OAuth protocol does n't transfer over any password information , it 's designed to grant third-party applications access to internet accounts through the use of special tokens . In the case of Fancy Bear , the hacking group has leveraged the protocol to buildAttack.Phishingfake applications that can foolAttack.Phishingvictims into handing over account access , Trend Micro said . “ After abusing the screening process for OAuth approvals , ( the group ’ s ) rogue application operatesAttack.Phishinglike every other app accepted by the service provider , ” the security firm said . Even Google 's 2-step verification , which is designed to prevent unwarranted account access , ca n't stop the hack , according to Trend Micro . Google 's 2-step verification works by requiring not only a password , but also a special code sent to a user 's smartphone when logging in . Security experts say it 's an effective way to protect your account . However , the phishing schemeAttack.Phishingfrom Fancy Bear manages to sidestep this security measure , by trickingAttack.Phishingusers into granting access through the fake Google security app . Google , however , said it takes many steps to protect users from such phishing attacksAttack.Phishing. `` In addition , Google detects and reviews potential OAuth abuse and takes down thousands of apps for violating our User Data Policy , such as impersonatingAttack.Phishinga Google app , '' the company said in a statement . `` Note that a real Google app should be directly accessed from a Google site or installed from the Google Play or Apple App stores , '' it added . According to Trend Micro , victims were targeted with this phishing attackAttack.Phishingin 2015 , and 2016 . In addition to Google Defender , Fancy Bear has used other apps under names such as Google Email Protection and Google Scanner . They ’ ve also gone after Yahoo users with apps called Delivery Service and McAfee Email protection . The attackAttack.Phishingattempts to trickAttack.Phishingusers into handing over access to their email through fake Google third-party applications . “ Internet users are urged to never accept OAuth token requests from an unknown party or a service they did not ask for , ” Trend Micro said . Although a password reset can sometimes revoke an OAuth token , it 's best to check what third-party applications are connected to your email account . This can be done by looking at an email account 's security settings , and revoking access where necessary . Fancy Bear is most notorious for its suspected role in hacking the Democratic National Committee last year . However , the group has also been found targeting everything from government ministries , media organizations , along with universities and think tanks , according to Trend Micro .
Google users today were hitAttack.Phishingwith an extremely convincing phishing spreeAttack.Phishinglaunched by attackers who manipulated Google Docs ' legitimate third-party sharing mechanism . Targets receivedAttack.Phishingmessages with the subject like `` [ Sender ] has shared a document on Google Docs with you '' often from senders they knew . The messages contained links , which led to a page that clearly requested access to the user 's Gmail account . If the target user provides access , the attackAttack.Phishingbegins sendingAttack.Phishingspam to all the user 's contacts . Theoretically , the attacker could also accessAttack.Databreachthe victim 's messages and stealAttack.Databreachsensitive data , but thus far there have been no reports of such activity . Because it takes advantage of Google 's legitimate third-party sharing mechanism , the phishing message is much more difficult to identify as malicious . The icons and messaging are familiar to Google users . Gmail itself did not filter the messages as phishingAttack.Phishingor flag them as spam , but rather sent them to Gmail users ' `` Primary '' inbox mail folders . The senders were familiar enough to have the target in their contact lists . One way to spot the attack : some targets report that the message includes a recipient with an address that begins `` hhhhhhhhhhhhhh '' and ends with the domain `` mailinator.com . '' Google responded with a fix and issued a statement : `` We have taken action to protect users against an email impersonatingAttack.PhishingGoogle Docs , and have disabled offending accounts . We ’ ve removed the fake pages , pushedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityupdates through Safe Browsing , and our abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofingAttack.Phishingfrom happening again . We encourage users to report phishing emails in Gmail . If you think you were affected , visit http : //g.co/SecurityCheckup '' Those who have already fallen victim to this attack should also go to their Google account permissions settings and revoke access to the false `` Google Docs '' application . They 're also advised to set up two-factor authentication .
The OurMine hackers are back in the news again . This time the group hacked and defaced the official domain of Unity 3D Forums leaving a deface page along with a note over the weekend . The hack which took place on 30th April allowed the Saudi Arabia-based OurMine hacking group to compromise the forum ’ s security and leave a note stating “ Hacked by OurMine , Your Security is low. ” Unity 3D administrators have acknowledged the hackAttack.Databreachbut stated that no password was stolenAttack.Databreachin the attackAttack.Databreachand that the 2FA Authentication will be introduced to the forums for better security . Furthermore , the administrators are also planning to bring Device Identification and Password Policy on the forums . According to the official statement from Unity 3D : Thanks to everyone that have reached out about our forums being compromised – we are on it ! — Unity ( @ unity3d ) April 30 , 2017 One of the team members from Unity stated on Reddit that : After the hack , the Unity 3D forums was down for maintenance though at the time of publishing this article the forums were online and reachable . However , if you have an account on Unity 3D forums it is advised that you change your password . Just in case if you are not familiar with the OurMine then this is the same group who conducted the biggest hack in YouTube ’ s history last month by taking over hundreds of popular YouTube accounts and defacing their titles with # OurMine signature . The same group was in the news for hacking Google ’ s CEO Sundar Pichai , Facebook ’ s CEO Mark Zuckerberg , Co-founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey and several other top media celebrities and news outlets . It is unclear how OurMine hacksAttack.Databreachits victims but researchers believe that the group uses passwords stolenAttack.Databreachfrom previous data breachesAttack.Databreachincluding LinkedIn and MySpace . The group is also working on establishing itself as an IT security firm to help companies against cyber attacks , however , it is unclear whether such tactics will give them clients or scare them away . DDoS attacks are increasing , calculate the cost and probability of a DDoS attack on your business with this DDoS Downtime Cost Calculator .
A cyber attack has compromisedAttack.Databreachthe personal data of up to 26,000 Debenhams customers . The breachAttack.Databreach, which is understood to have been malware-based , targeted the online portal for the retailer 's florist arm , Debenhams Flowers . Debenhams has stressed that the site is operated by Ecomnova , a third-party supplier , and that customers of other services have not been affected . Ecomnova also operates Debenhams ' websites for hampers , personalised gifts and wines . While all four sites have been suspended , the retailer has not announced whether the others were also breached . Debenhams confirmed to Sky News that customer payment details , names and addresses were accessed or stolenAttack.Databreachduring the attackAttack.Databreach. In a statement the company stressed that it was only the Ecomnova-run site that had been compromisedAttack.Databreach, and that customers of its main website Debenhams.com `` can be confident they are unaffected by this attack '' . `` All affected customers have been contacted by Debenhams to inform them of the incident , '' the firm told Sky News . `` We are working with Ecomnova to ask the banks of those affected to block payment cards of those customers affected and issue customers with new cards . '' Debenhams said the incident had been reported to the Information Commissioner 's Office ( ICO ) , the UK 's independent body for upholding the Data Protection Act . Following a cyber attack in October 2015 , the ICO fined TalkTalk a record £400,000 after 15,656 individuals ' bank account details and sort codes were stolenAttack.Databreach. An ICO spokesperson said it was aware of the `` potential incident '' involving Debenhams Flowers and that enquiries were being made . `` Businesses and organisations are required under the Data Protection Act to keep people 's personal data safe and secure , '' the spokesperson said . Debenhams chief executive Sergio Bucher said : `` As soon as we were informed that there had been a cyber attack , we suspended the Debenhams Flowers website and commenced a full investigation . `` We are very sorry that customers have been affected by this incident and we are doing everything we can to provide advice to affected customers and reduce their risk . '' Ecomnova did not immediately respond to Sky News for comment .
OneLogin has revealed more about the attackAttack.Databreachon its systems , confirming that a `` threat actor '' had accessedAttack.Databreachdatabase tables including `` information about users , apps , and various types of keys . '' It warned once again that the malefactor , who was able to rifle through OneLogin 's infrastructure for seven hours , may have been able to decrypt customer data . The company said : Our review has shown that a threat actor obtained accessAttack.Databreachto a set of AWS keys and used them to access the AWS API from an intermediate host with another , smaller service provider in the US . Evidence shows the attack started on May 31 , 2017 around 2 am PST . Through the AWS API , the actor created several instances in our infrastructure to do reconnaissance . OneLogin staff was alerted of unusual database activity around 9 am PST and within minutes shut down the affected instance as well as the AWS keys that were used to create it . One customer affected by the OneLogin attack told Ars that he was having to `` rebuild the whole authentication security system ... OUCH ! '' OneLogin told fretful customers in an internal notification that they would need to work through a number of steps to secure their accounts , including generation of new API credentials and OAuth tokens . Any users served by the firm 's US data centre have been hit by the breach , OneLogin said . `` While we encrypt certain sensitive data at rest , at this time we can not rule out the possibility that the threat actor also obtainedAttack.Databreachthe ability to decrypt data , '' OneLogin said . `` We are thus erring on the side of caution and recommending actions our customers should take , which we have already communicated to our customers . '' OneLogin has admitted that the single sign-on ( SSO ) and identity management firm has suffered a data breachAttack.Databreach. However its public statement is vague about the nature of the attack . An e-mail to customers provides a bit of detail—warning them that their data may have been exposed . And a support page that is only accessible to OneLogin account holders is even more worrying for customers . It apparently says that `` customer data was compromisedAttack.Databreach, including the ability to decrypt encrypted data . '' OneLogin—which claims to offer a service that `` secures connections across all users , all devices , and every application '' —said on Thursday that it had `` detected unauthorised access '' in the company 's US data region . It added in the post penned by OneLogin CISO Alvaro Hoyos : We have since blocked this unauthorised access , reported the matter to law enforcement , and are working with an independent security firm to determine how the unauthorised access happened and verify the extent of the impact of this incident . We want our customers to know that the trust they have placed in us is paramount . While our investigation is still ongoing , we have already reached out to impacted customers with specific recommended remediation steps and are actively working to determine how best to prevent such an incident from occurring in the future and will update our customers as these improvements are implemented . It has given customers a long list of actions to protect their accounts following the attack . It 's unclear why it is that OneLogin has provided three different sets of information to its customers . It 's possible the company was hoping to only disclose more detail to those directly affected by the attack to avoid revealing potential weaknesses that may have exposed the data in the first place . But that attempt to keep the information under wraps has clearly backfired as customers scramble to secure their accounts . This is the second data breachAttack.Databreachthat OneLogin has suffered within the past year . Last August it warned customers of a cleartext login bug on its Secure Notes service , after `` an unauthorised user gained access to one of our standalone systems , which we use for log storage and analytics . '' Hoyos apologised for that particular breach . `` We are making every effort to prevent any similar occurrence in the future , '' he said at the time .
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 .
Los Angeles Valley College in Valley Glen was subject to a cyber attack over the winter break but it is not known how large the breachAttack.Databreachwas , officials said Tuesday . The attack was described as “ malicious cyber activity targeting Los Angeles Valley College , ” according to a statement from Los Angeles Community College District Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez . “ This attack is believed to have taken place over the holidays and we are working closely with local and federal authorities to learn more about its potential impact , ” Rodriguez said . “ Our top priority in resolving this incident is ensuring that the security and privacy of our students and employees is protected ” . Additional details about the attackAttack.Databreachwere not made available and it was not immediately clear if anyone ’ s personal data was compromisedAttack.Databreach. Los Angeles Sheriff ’ s cyber crimes unit was investigating , Deputy Caroline Rodriguez of the Sheriff ’ s Information Bureau said . The FBI did not immediately reply to emailed questions regarding the attack
News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media , news , education , and information services . Addresses , names and phone numbers for staff were accessedAttack.Databreachin the data breachAttack.DatabreachSPORTS Direct failed to tell its workers about a major data breachAttack.Databreachthat saw personal information accessedAttack.Databreachby hackers . A cyber attacker gained accessAttack.Databreachto internal systems containing details for phone numbers , names and home and email addresses of the retail giant's 30,000 staff members . But according to The Register , workers still have n't been told about the breachAttack.Databreach, which took place in September . Sports Direct discovered the attackAttack.Databreachthree months later after a phone number was leftAttack.Databreachon the company 's internal site with a message encouraging bosses to make contact . Chiefs filed a report with the Information Commissioner 's office after it became aware that personal information had been compromisedAttack.Databreach. But as there was no evidence the data had been sharedAttack.Databreach, Sports Direct did n't report the breachAttack.Databreachto staff . The blunder is the latest in a string of controversies surrounding the sporting goods retailer . Allegations also surfaced of some workers being promised permanent contracts in exchange for sexual favours . Committee chairman Iain Wright said evidence heard by MPs last year suggested Sports Direct 's working practices `` are closer to that of a Victorian workhouse than that of a modern , reputable High Street retailer '' . In November , six MPs from the Business and Skills Committee said attempts were made to record their private discussions when they visited Sport Direct to investigate working practices . A spokesman for Sports Direct said : `` We can not comment on operational matters in relation to cyber-security for obvious reasons .
Get accessAttack.Databreachto essential strategic content , in-depth reports , industry intelligence , and exclusive data . Columbia Sportswear Co , is investigating an attackAttack.Databreachon one of its e-commerce sites . CEO Tim Boyle told analysts on Columbia ’ s fourth quarter 2016 earnings call that there was an unspecified cyber attackAttack.Databreachon its prAna brand ’ s online store . Columbia Sportswear acquired prAna in May 2014 for $ 190 million in cash . “ We immediately launched an investigation and engaged a leading third-party cyber security firm to assist us , ” he told analysts on the call , according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha . “ Protecting our customers ’ information is one of our top priorities and we are taking this very seriously . Until the investigation is completed , it ’ s difficult to characterize the scope or nature of the potential incident , but we are working vigilantly to address this issue ” . Boyle stressed that the attackAttack.Databreachwas limited to prAna ’ s site and did not affect Columbia ’ s other online stores . Online sales are growing fast for the outdoor apparel maker and retailer . Boyle told analysts the company generated about $ 220 million in online sales globally in 2016 .
In recent years , ransomware has become a growing concern for companies in every industry . Between April 2015 and March 2016 , the number of individuals affected by ransomware surpassed 2 million — a 17.7 % increase from the previous year . Ransomware attacks function by breaching systems , usually through infected email , and locking important files or networks until the user pays a specified amount of money . According to FBI statistics cited in a Malwarebytes report , hackers gained more than $ 209 million from ransomware paymentsAttack.Ransomin the first three months of 2016 , putting ransomware on track to rake in nearly $ 1 billion this year . But as a result of increased ransom-avoidance , cybercriminals have created an even more insidious threat . Imagine malware that combines ransomware with a personal data leakAttack.Databreach: this is what the latest threat , doxware , looks like . With doxware , hackers hold computers hostageAttack.Ransomuntil the victim pays the ransomAttack.Ransom, similar to ransomware . But doxware takes the attack further by compromisingAttack.Databreachthe privacy of conversations , photos , and sensitive files , and threatening to release them publicly unless the ransom is paidAttack.Ransom. Because of the threatened release , it 's harder to avoid paying the ransomAttack.Ransom, making the attackAttack.Ransommore profitable for hackers . In 2014 , Sony Pictures suffered an email phishing malware attackAttack.Phishingthat releasedAttack.Databreachprivate conversations between top producers and executives discussing employees , actors , industry competitors , and future film plans , among other sensitive topics . And ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomhave claimed a number of recent victims , especially healthcare systems , including MedStar Health , which suffered a major attackAttack.Ransomaffecting 10 hospitals and more than 250 outpatient centers in March 2016 . Combine the data leakAttack.Databreachof Sony and the ransomware attackAttack.Ransomon MedStar and you can see the potential fallout from a doxware attack . Doxware requires strategic , end-to-end planning , which means hackers will target their victims more deliberately . Looking at the data leakedAttack.Databreachfrom Sony , it 's easy to imagine the catastrophic effect doxware would have on an executive of any major corporation . Company leaders hold countless conversations over email each day on sensitive topics ranging from product development to competition to internal politics , and if there 's a doxware attack , the fallout could be extensive . Expect Things to Get WorseThe technology behind doxware is still new , but expect the problem to become worse . Recent attacks have been contained to Windows desktop computers and laptops , but this will certainly change . Once the malware can infiltrate mobile devices , the threat will become even more pervasive , with text messages , photos , and data from apps at risk for being leakedAttack.Databreach. It 's also highly likely that doxware will target more types of files . Workplace emails are currently a big target for hackers . However , a company 's internal communications/instant messaging network is also appealing to hackers using doxware , as the messaging network often serves as a platform where both sensitive business discussion and casual conversations take place , potentially exposing both company secrets and personally embarrassing exchanges . One of these variants hold files ransomAttack.Ransomwith the threat of release and then stealsAttack.Databreacha victim 's passwords . Another mutation , Popcorn Time , takes doxware even further giving victims the option to infect two of their friends with the malware instead of paying the ransomAttack.Ransom.
Last week we first tweeted that the GuardiCore Global Sensor Network ( GGSN ) has detected a wide ransomware attackAttack.Ransomtargeting MySQL databases . The attacksAttack.Ransomlook like an evolution of the MongoDB ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomfirst reported earlier this year by Victor Gevers . Similarly to the MongoDB attacksAttack.Ransom, owners are instructed to payAttack.Ransoma 0.2 Bitcoin ransomAttack.Ransom( approx. $ 200 ) to regain access to their content . We saw two very similar variations of the attackAttack.Ransomusing two bitcoin wallets . In this post we will describe in detail the attack flow and provide some recommendations on how to protect your databases from similar attacks along with attack IoCs . The attacks started at midnight at 00:15 on February 12 and lasted about 30 hours in which hundreds of attacks were reported by GGSN . We were able to trace all the attacks to 109.236.88.20 , an IP address hosted by worldstream.nl , a Netherlands-based web hosting company . The attacker is ( probably ) running from a compromised mail server which also serves as HTTP ( s ) and FTP server . Worldstream was notified a few days after we reported the attack . The attack starts with ‘ root ’ password brute-forcing . Once logged-in , it fetches a list of the existing MySQL databases and their tables and creates a new table called ‘ WARNING ’ that includes a contact email address , a bitcoin address and a payment demandAttack.Ransom. In one variant of the attack the table is added to an existing database ; in other cases the table is added to a newly created database called ‘ PLEASE_READ ’ . The attacker will then delete the databases stored on the server and disconnect , sometimes without even dumping them first . The attack as reported by GuardiCore Centra We logged two versions of the ransom message : INSERT INTO PLEASE_READ. ` WARNING ` ( id , warning , Bitcoin_Address , Email ) VALUES ( ‘ 1′ , ’ Send 0.2 BTC to this address and contact this email with your ip or db_name of your server to recover your database ! Your DB is Backed up to our servers ! ’ , ‘ 1ET9NHZEXXQ34qSP46vKg8mrWgT89cfZoY ’ , ‘ backupservice @ mail2tor.com ’ ) INSERT INTO ` WARNING ` ( id , warning ) VALUES ( 1 , ‘ SEND 0.2 BTC TO THIS ADDRESS 1Kg9nGFdAoZWmrn1qPMZstam3CXLgcxPA9 AND GO TO THIS SITE http : //sognd75g4isasu2v.onion/ TO RECOVER YOUR DATABASE ! The second version offers the owner to visit the following darknet web site ‘ http : //sognd75g4isasu2v.onion/ ’ to recover the lost data . The darknet web site referenced in the ransom note . Each version uses a different bitcoin wallet , 1Kg9nGFdAoZWmrn1qPMZstam3CXLgcxPA9 vs 1ET9NHZEXXQ34qSP46vKg8mrWgT89cfZoY and based on Blockchain public information people have been paying up .
One tried-and-true technique continues to be hiding malware inside fake versions of popular files , then distributingAttack.Phishingthose fake versions via app stores . Doing the same via peer-to-peer BitTorrent networks has also long been popular . But as with so many supposedly free versions of paid-for applications , users may get more than they bargained for . To wit , last week researchers at the security firm ESET spotted new ransomware - Filecoder.E - circulating via BitTorrent , disguised asAttack.Phishinga `` patcher '' that purports to allow Mac users to crack such applications as Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Microsoft Office 2016 . As Toronto-based security researcher Cheryl Biswas notes in a blog post : `` For those who torrent , be careful . ESET says the ransomware can also encrypt any Time Machine backups on network-connected volumes that are mounted at the time of the attackAttack.Ransom. If the ransomware infects a system , it demandsAttack.Ransom0.25 bitcoins - currently worth about $ 300 - for a decryption key . But ESET security researcher Marc-Etienne M.L Éveillé , in a blog post , says the application is so poorly coded that there 's no way that a victim could ever obtain a decryption key . So far , ESET reports that the single bitcoin wallet tied to the ransomware has received no payments . `` There is one big problem with this ransomware : It does n't have any code to communicate with any C & C ; server , '' says Éveillé , referring to a command-and-control server that might have been used to remotely control the infected endpoint . `` This means that there is no way the key that was used to encrypt the files can be sent to the malware operators . This also means that there is no way for them to provide a way to decrypt a victim 's files . '' The longstanding ransomware-defense advice , of course , is to never pay ransomsAttack.Ransom, because this directly funds cybercrime groups ' ongoing research and development . Instead , stay prepared : Keep complete , disconnected backups of all systems , and periodically test that they can be restored , and thus never have to consider paying a ransomAttack.Ransom. `` We advise that victims never pay the ransomAttack.Ransomwhen hit by ransomware , '' Éveillé says . In other ransomware news , new ransomware known as Trump Locker - not to be confused with Trumpcryption - turns out to be a lightly repackaged version of VenusLocker ransomware , according to Lawrence Abrams of the security analysis site Bleeping Computer , as well as the researchers known as MalwareHunter Team . `` Unfortunately , you are hacked , '' the start of the malware's ransom demandAttack.Ransomreportedly reads . VenusLocker first appeared in October 2016 ; it got a refresh two months later . The researchers do n't know if the group distributing Trump Locker is the same group that distributed VenusLocker , or if another group of attackers reverse-engineered the code . But they say that functionally , the two pieces of malware appear to be virtually identical , Bleeping Computer reports . For example , both Trump Locker and VenusLocker will encrypt some files types in full , while only encrypting the first 1024 bytes of other file types , including PDF , XLS , DOCX , and MP3 file formats . Fully encrypted files have `` .TheTrumpLockerf '' appended to their filename , while partially encrypted files get a `` .TheTrumpLockerp '' extension added , the researchers say . Finally , ransomware gangs ' use of customer service portals - to help and encourage victims to pay their ransomsAttack.Ransom- continues , says Mikko Hypponen , chief research officer of Finnish security firm F-Secure . One chief function of this support appears to be to help victims who do n't know their Windows from their ASP to find a way to remit bitcoinsAttack.Ransomto attackers , according to research into crypto-ransomware called Spora and its related customer-support operation , conducted by F-Secure 's Sean Sullivan .