Ransomware

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released a report on Monday that accused North Korean state-controlled hackers of sharing their shadowy banking and money-laundering networks with scam artists and drug traffickers across Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

A ransomware attack on the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the communist county’s largest bank, has reportedly caused a disruption at the U.S. Treasury market.

The FBI on Tuesday announced a successful multinational operation to take down a cybercrime ring known as “Qakbot.” The gang used an enormous botnet to spread ransomware through spam emails, inflicting hundreds of millions of dollars in damage on computer users around the world.

In an unprecedented event in the healthcare industry, St. Margaret’s Health in Spring Valley, Illinois, is set to close its doors, partially due to a crippling ransomware attack that occurred in 2021. This marks the first time a hospital has publicly attributed its closure to a cyberattack. One administrator explained the extent of the cyberattack, saying,  “You’re dead in the water. We were down a minimum of 14 weeks. And then you’re trying to recover. Nothing went out. No claims. Nothing got entered. So it took months and months and months.” she said.

The U.S. Marshals Service fell victim to a security breach recently, compromising sensitive information. Although private data on topics like investigations was part of the breach, officials claim no data for the witness protection program was leaked.

A hacker group reportedly accessed the computer systems of Knox College and gained access to student data, threatening students with the release of their private information. This is a major shift in ransomware attacks, which typically are aimed at institutions, not individual Americans.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Wednesday that his government’s National Cyber Security Center has determined hackers linked to the Iranian regime were “almost certainly” behind a massive cyberattack against the Albanian government in July. Albania severed diplomatic ties with Iran over the incident, enraging Tehran.

CARACAS – New York prosecutors charged Venezuelan cardiologist Moisés Luis Zagala González this month with designing and licensing malware used by cybercriminal groups, including some with ties to the Islamist regime of Iran.

The government of Costa Rica declared a state of emergency this week after a massive ransomware attack locked down computer networks across multiple government agencies, paralyzing tax collection and leaving the private information of Costa Rican citizens vulnerable.

According to a recent report, one of the most prolific ransomware groups of 2021 operates in a manner similar to a legitimate business with a human resources department, employee performance reviews, and even an employee of the month award. The gang has reportedly generated $2.7 billion in cryptocurrency through their illegal schemes.

The U.S. Treasury announced Sunday the development of a joint task force with Israel’s Ministry of Finance to combat ransomware attacks and reinforce international cybersecurity.

In a recent article, the Wall Street Journal outlines a lawsuit that alleges that computer outages as a result of ransomware attacks led to the staff of an Alabama hospital missing key signs of trouble resulting in a baby’s death.

According to a recent analysis of school files from dark web pages performed by NBC News, the personal data of millions of schoolchildren is being spread across the internet. The data found on students includes social security numbers and medical conditions.

In 2019 the city of Borger, Texas, dealt with one of the earliest ransomware attacks in a recent series of Russia-based hacks. Although some services were disrupted, the town had most of its files backed up and essential services remained up. The town did not pay the $2.5 million ransom demanded by the hackers.

Executives at Miami-based software company Kaseya were reportedly warned of critical flaws in its software before a ransomware attack this month that affected as many as 1,500 companies, according to former employees.

According to a recent report, the code used by the Russian-speaking hacking ring REvil in its ransomware attacks was written to avoid systems that primarily use the Russian language.

The hackers behind the recent ransomware attack of the IT firm Kaseya have offered a universal decryptor software key that could unlock all affected machines for $70 million.

Between 800 and 1,500 businesses worldwide have reportedly been affected by a ransomware attack focused on the U.S. information technology firm Kaseya, according to the firm’s CEO.

Yet another massive ransomware attack has taken place as hackers continue to hold valuable systems hostage — receiving millions of dollars in the process.

Polish game developer CD Projekt Red, the popular company behind the Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077, has revealed this week that proprietary data taken in a ransomware attack disclosed four months ago is circulating online.

JBS, the largest beef supplier in the world, reportedly paid ransomware hackers who breached its computer networks about $11 million to regain access to its systems.

The Justice Department announced on Monday that it had recovered $2.3 million of the cryptocurrency ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline Co. to ransomware hackers. The funds were seized from an account located in California, leading many to suspect the ransom was paid to a Coinbase wallet — a claim the cryptocurrency exchange has denied.

The United States government is said to have recovered millions of dollars in cryptocurrency paid as a ransom to the hackers believed to be behind the cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline Co., the largest pipeline system for oil products in the country.

On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Fast Money Halftime Report,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco stated that the government doesn’t know whether meat producer JBS paid ransom in response to a cyberattack against the company. CNBC Senior Washington Correspondent Eamon Javers

During a portion of an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Senate Sergeant at Arms Karen Gibson stated that she views “cybersecurity as my greater concern than a mob attacking the Capitol.” Gibson said, “I worry a

The FBI has attributed the recent cyberattack on meat supplier JBS to a Russian hacker group called REvil.

The Massachusetts Steamship Authority was hit by a cyberattack on Wednesday, which took its website offline and caused delays for ferry travelers.

CNA Financial, one of the largest insurance companies in the United States, reportedly paid $40 million to hackers that hijacked their systems in a ransomware attack that occurred in late March.

The CEO of Colonial Pipeline, Joseph Blount, has attempted to explain why he chose to pay a $4.4 million ransom to hackers that took the pipeline’s system hostage. According to one expert, the Colonial Pipeline payoff will “help keep United States critical infrastructure providers in the crosshairs.”

According to a recent report, the hackers behind the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, which caused a gas shortage along the East Coast, received $90 million in bitcoin ransom payments from 47 victims over the past nine months.

The Irish Health Service Executive system has been hit by a ransomware attack, shutting down all IT systems just days after the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in the U.S.

A recent report from Wired reveals that a week after a ransomware attack shut down Colonial Pipeline halting fuel distribution on the East Coast, the company paid a reported $5 million dollar ransom to regain control of their systems and resume operations. The payoff may lead to future ransomware attacks, as one expert notes: “Unfortunately, it’ll help keep United States critical infrastructure providers in the crosshairs. If a sector proves to be profitable, they’ll keep on hitting it.”

The president delivered remarks on the gas shortage at the White House, warning it would take “several days” to get gas supplies back to normal.

Colonial Pipeline Co. paid hackers nearly $5 million to free their computer network Friday, despite claims they had no intention of doing so.

GasBuddy, an app that helps users to find the best availability and prices on fuel, has topped Apple’s App Store this week amidst the gas shortage caused by the recent ransomware cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline. The app has proved so popular that its servers have experienced outages this week.

Morgan Wright, the Chief Security Advisor at SentinelOne and former Senior Advisor of the U.S. State Department and the Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, appeared on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow on Wednesday to discuss the recent rise in ransomware attacks. According to Wright, “if you remove the ability to monetize this, these gangs are out of business because they’re only in it for one reason — to make money.”