Industry Reactions to U.S. Water Plant Hack: Feedback Friday
The attack, which targeted the water supply in Oldsmar, a small city in Florida, was discovered by staff at the plant — they noticed the mouse moving on the screen — and they rushed to take action before any damage was caused. The attackers breached the facility via TeamViewer, which staff had been using to…
Web Developer Hub SitePoint Discloses Data Breach
Based in Melbourne, Australia, and established more than two decades ago, SitePoint provides users with access to tutorials and books that can help them learn the basics of web development. Last week, the company started informing users that some data was accessed by a third-party during a cyber-attack that was “recently confirmed.” The culprit, SitePoint…
Airbus CyberSecurity Subsidiary Stormshield Discloses Data Breach
Stormshield provides network security, endpoint security and data security solutions. The company describes itself as a “European leader in digital infrastructure security” and claims to have a presence in more than 40 countries. In a security incident notice posted on its website, Stormshield said it recently detected unauthorized access to a technical portal used by…
Over 1 Million Impacted by Data Breach at Washington State Auditor
At the heart of the incident, SAO says, was Accellion software used for file transfers. Hackers exploited a security flaw in the file sharing service and gained access to restricted files. Called FTA (File Transfer Application), Accellion’s service in mid-December received a patch for a critical vulnerability impacting less than 50 customers. The fix was…
Interview With a Russian Cybercriminal
IT security practitioners spend a lot of time strategizing ransomware defense, but many know little about the criminals plotting attacks. Who is the person behind a devastating ransomware campaign? Why did they choose a specific target? What about cybercrime appeals to them? To better understand the attacker’s perspective, Cisco Talos researchers interviewed a LockBit ransomware…
Attacks on Individuals Fall as Cybercrime Shifts Tactics
The nonprofit, which supports victims of identity crime, found that the number of U.S. data breaches fell 19% in 2020 to 1,108. But the number of individual victims of such cybercrimes fell 66% compared with the year prior. Ransomware and phishing attacks are now the preferred form of data theft because they require less effort…
Unemployment Fraud – Preying on Those Most in Need
The Covid-19 pandemic has been raging for nearly a year now. With the pandemic has come a tremendous amount of uncertainty. Many of us wonder when we will be able to return to normal life, when we will be able to see family and friends, and when we might resume those everyday activities we used…
Law Enforcement Planning Emotet Cleanup Operation Following Botnet Takedown
One of the most prevalent botnets over the past decade, Emotet has been around since 2014, helping cybercriminals deploy their own Trojans, ransomware, and other types of malware onto compromised machines. Serving as a malware loader, Emotet has been associated with the distribution of well-known malware families, including TrickBot and Ryuk ransomware, among others. This…
The state of the dark web: Insights from the underground
Lately, dark web actors have one more worry: getting caught by law enforcement. Tracking dark web illegal activities has been a cat-and-mouse game for authorities, but in the end, they often catch their adversaries and seize the dodgy money. On the night of the 2020 presidential election, for example, US government officials managed to empty…
Ransomware Took Heavy Toll on US in 2020: Researchers
The study released Monday by the security firm Emsisoft said ransomware attacks — which encrypt and disable computer systems while demanding a ransom — affected 113 federal, state and municipal governments, 560 health facilities and 1,681 schools, colleges and universities last year. “The attacks caused significant, and sometimes life-threatening, disruption: ambulances carrying emergency patients had…
