LockBit Tries to Distance Itself From Royal Mail Attack
What’s the term for when a ransomware group blames a geopolitically awkward attack it appears to have carried out on someone – anyone – else, just not them? Let’s call it getting “Colonial Pipelined,” after the DarkSide group’s disastrous hit on that oil pipeline system led the crime group to kill its brand. Is the…
San Fran’s BART Investigates Vice Society Data Breach Claims
The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) was listed this week by ransomware group Vice Society as being among its latest victims. Brett Callow, threat analyst with Emsisoft, flagged the Vice Society BART brag on Jan. 6. However, BART’s spokesperson Alicia Trost told Dark Reading there haven’t been any service disruptions as a…
Airline company Air France-KLM discloses security breach
Airline company Air France-KLM announced it has suffered a data breach, data belonging to customers of its loyalty program Flying Blue were exposed. The Flying Blue loyalty program is used by other airlines, including Aircalin, Kenya Airways, TAROM, and Transavia. The company did not provide details about the security breach, it is not clear if…
Saint Gheorghe Recovery Hospital in Romania suffered a ransomware attack
The Saint Gheorghe Recovery Hospital in Botoşani, in northeastern Romania, was hit by a ransomware attack in December that is still impacting medical operations. The hospital is not able to report the services performed in December 2022 and for this reason, it cannot receive payment for the medical services provided. The threat actors demanded a…
Russia-Linked Turla APT Sneakily Co-Opts Ancient Andromeda USB Infections
A hacking group — suspected to be the Russia-linked Turla Team — reregistered at least three old domains associated with the decade-old Andromeda malware, allowing the group to distribute its own reconnaissance and surveillance tools to Ukrainian targets. Cybersecurity firm Mandiant stated in a Thursday advisory that Turla Team APT, also known by Mandiant’s designation…
Cyberattacks against governments jumped 95% in last half of 2022, CloudSek says
The number of attacks targeting the government sector increased by 95% worldwide in the second half of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, according to a new report by AI-based cybersecurity company CloudSek. The increase in attacks can be attributed to rapid digitization and the shift to remote work during the pandemic, which…
Ukraine Successfully Blocked Over 4,500 Cyberattacks in 2022
Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency revealed earlier this week that it successfully blocked more than 4,500 cyberattacks in 2022. The Security Service of Ukraine, which protects Ukraine’s information and digital security in wartime conditions, says the number of cyberattacks has tripled since last year and increased fivefold since 2020, when only 800 cyberattacks were documented. The…
Vice Society Ransomware Attackers Adopt Robust Encryption Methods
The Vice Society ransomware actors have switched to yet another custom ransomware payload in their recent attacks aimed at a variety of sectors. “This ransomware variant, dubbed ‘PolyVice,’ implements a robust encryption scheme, using NTRUEncrypt and ChaCha20-Poly1305 algorithms,” SentinelOne researcher Antonio Cocomazzi said in an analysis. Vice Society, which is tracked by Microsoft under the…
France Fines Microsoft €60 Million for Using Advertising Cookies Without User Consent
France’s privacy watchdog has imposed a €60 million ($63.88 million) fine against Microsoft’s Ireland subsidiary for dropping advertising cookies in users’ computers without their explicit consent in violation of data protection laws in the European Union. The Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL) noted that users visiting the home page of its Bing…
FBI Recommends Ad Blockers as Cybercriminals Impersonate Brands in Search Engine Ads
The attackers register domains similar to those of legitimate businesses or services and use those domains to purchase ads from search engine advertisement services, the FBI says in an alert. These nefarious ads are displayed at the top of the web page when the user searches for that business or service, and the user might…
