A wide-ranging ransomware attack has hit 23 government entities in Texas, most of them “smaller, local governments,” the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) confirmed Saturday. While the government won’t reveal the names of the organizations affected by the attack, which began Friday morning, the DIR said that state of Texas networks and systems weren’t…
Two hospital systems began notifying patients and employees of cyber incidents, one ransomware and another a data breach, that took place in June. Grays Harbor Community Hospital (GHCH) and Harbor Medical Group, in Aberdeen, Wash., just began informing patients of a ransomware attack that took place on June 15. At that time hospital databases containing…
IBM Security’s X-Force Incident Response and Intelligence Services (IRIS) team reported this week that it witnessed a 200 percent increase in destructive malware attacks over the first half of 2019, compared to the second half of 2018. These malware attacks typically incorporated a disk wiper component to them. Wipers are historically associated with nation-state-sponsored attacks…
A new variant of MegaCortex ransomware making its way across the U.S. and Europe has been recast as a self-executing menace that doesn’t require a password and is aimed at enterprises, according to a technical analysis released by researchers at Accenture iDefense. “The disadvantage of the first version was that actors had to run the…
Looking for insights in modern literature to address the challenges facing CISOs might seem farfetched, but there is some logic to this. Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass illustrates the challenges posed by ransomware. While this might seem contradictory on the surface, the options and twisted logic Alice faced are…
The Georgia State Patrol was reportedly the target of a July 26 ransomware attack that has necessitated the precautionary shutdown of its servers and network. Per local news affiliate WHNT, the GSP has confirmed that the incidence could slightly impact response times; however, members of the force still have other channels of communication such as…
Security researcher Marcus Hutchins was sentenced to one year of supervised release by U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller for his role in creating the Kronos banking trojan. Hutchins, a U.K. citizen, pleaded guilty in April for specific activity that took place between July 2014 and July 2015, which included marketing the Kronos banking trojan on…
Europol marked the third anniversary of the No More Ransom initiative by rolling out a few statistics, the top being that the site has helped more than 200,000 people recover files after a ransomware attack. Since its launch in July 2016, the site has registered 3 million visitors from 188 countries, and ended up stopping…
The Johannesburg power company City Power was hit with a ransomware attack on July 25 which compromised its databases, applications and networks. As a result, residents of the South African economic hub were unable to purchase electricity through City Power’s prepaid vending system, leaving them without power. The issue might also impact City Power’s ability…
Vigo County, Indiana, was hit with a cyberattack on July 23 and is still in the process of assessing the damage to the government’s computer system. Vigo officials at first were not certain exactly what type of attack occurred as no ransom note appeared, said information technology department director Jeremy Snowden to WTHR News. However,…
