Are All Ransom Attacks Considered Ransomware?

Ransomware has loomed large in the news of late. It seems to be around every turn, and it’s not going anywhere. The untraceability of Bitcoin payments, coupled with new blackhat tools available to anyone at little if any cost, means extortion attempts will continue to grab headlines worldwide. Bu...

IC3 Issues Internet Crime Report for 2016

The Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3 has released its 2016 Internet Crime Report, describing the numbers and types of cyber crimes reported to IC3. Business Email Compromise BEC, ransomware attacks, tech support fraud, and extortion are all common schemes affecting people in the U.S. and aroun...

FIN10: Anatomy of a Cyber Extortion Operation

FireEye has identified a set of financially motivated intrusion operations being carried out by a threat actor we have dubbed FIN10. FIN10 is known for compromising networks, stealing sensitive data, and directly engaging victim executives and board members in an attempt to extort them into payin...

FIN10: Anatomy of a Cyber Extortion Operation

FireEye has identified a set of financially motivated intrusion operations being carried out by a threat actor we have dubbed FIN10. FIN10 is known for compromising networks, stealing sensitive data, and directly engaging victim executives and board members in an attempt to extort them into payin...

Man Jailed 6 Months for Refusing to Give Police his iPhone Passcode

Remember Ramona Fricosu? A Colorado woman was ordered to unlock her encrypted Toshiba laptop while the FBI was investigating alleged mortgage fraud in 2012, but she declined to decrypt the laptop saying that she did not remember the password. Later the United States Court ruled that Police can...

SEI Issues Advice on Ransomware

The Software Engineering Institute SEI of Carnegie Mellon University has released a blog post on best practices for preventing and responding to ransomware. This common malware captures, encrypts, and holds your data to extort a ransom. SEI’s top recommendation to thwart ransomware attacks is to...

The Future of Ransomware

Ransomware isn't new, but it's increasingly popular and profitable. The concept is simple: Your computer gets infected with a virus that encrypts your files until you pay a ransom. It's extortion taken to its networked extreme. The criminals provide step-by-step instructions on how to pay,...

Bell Canada Hacked: Data of 1.9 Million Customers Stolen

While we all were busy in the WannaCry ransomware menace, two separate data breaches have been reported, one in DocuSign, a major provider of electronic signature technology, and another in BELL, Canada’s largest telecommunications company. Canadian mobile phone, TV, and internet service provider...

WannaCry and the Executive Order

Last week, The White House released its long awaited Executive Order EO, Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure, ironically enough during the same week we experienced the largest single ransomware attack that, by some estimates, has affected more than...

Low Risk Threat: DDoS Extortion Letters

Summary Adversaries calling themselves the Lizard Squad have been sending businesses extortion letters, demanding payment in bitcoin to prevent a Distributed Denial of Service DDoS or other attack against their applications. These letters have been sent to businesses across the globe and across...

Locky Ransomware Roars Back to Life Via Necurs Botnet

Cybercriminals behind the Locky ransomware and Necurs botnet are back in business. Last Friday researchers spotted both delivering nearly 35,000 emails in just a few hours, the first major Locky campaign researchers have seen in months, according to Cisco Talos. Researchers warn the latest Locky...

Police Arrest Man Potentially Linked to Group Threatening to Wipe Millions Of iPhones

The British authority has reportedly arrested a 20-years-old young man – potentially one of the member of a cyber criminal gang 'Turkish Crime Family' who threatened Apple last week to remotely wipe data from millions of iOS devices unless Apple pays a ransom of $75,000. The UK's National Crime...

Experts Doubt Hacker's Claim Of Millions Of Breached Apple Credentials

Security experts say they are skeptical that a group of hackers called Turkish Crime Family actually possess a cache of hundreds of millions of Apple iCloud account credentials. A more plausible explanation, they say, is that crooks used credential stuffing attacks to amass a limited number of...

Rook Security on Online Extortion

Mat Gangwer, CTO, and Tom Gorup, Security Operations Lead, at Rook Security talk to Mike Mimoso about the aggressive rise in online extortion and how it threatens not only data but physical safety. Download: RookSecurityonOnlineExtortion.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves...

Open Databases a Juicy Extortion Target

Recent attacks against insecure MongoDB, Hadoop and CouchDB installations represent a new phase in online extortion, born from ransomware’s roots with the promise of becoming a nemesis for years to come. “These types of attacks have grown from ones of opportunity to full-scale automated and...

Hundreds Of Operations Canceled After Malware Hacks Hospitals Systems

Computer viruses do not discriminate. They are not just hacking your email and online banking accounts anymore. Computer viruses do not distinguish between a personal computer or a hospital machine delivering therapy to patients — and the results could prove deadly. Cyber attacks on hospitals hav...

Swiss Star: extortion virus is a new variant after the poisoning 1 0 5 4 full file encryption-vulnerability warning-the black bar safety net

Recently, the rising“cloud security”system intercepted a new type of blackmail Virus, the virus encrypts files up to 1 0 5 4, file Unified encryption for. encrypted format, thus a ransom of 1 bitcoinabout RMB 4 5 0 0 Yuan. If the user is not within the prescribed time hack payment, the encrypted...

37-Year-Old 'Syrian Electronic Army' Hacker Pleads Guilty in US court

One of the FBI's Most Wanted Hackers who was arrested in Germany earlier this year has pleaded guilty to federal charges for his role in a scheme that hacked computers and targeted the US government, foreign governments, and multiple US media outlets. Peter Romar, 37, pleaded guilty Wednesday in ...

Cerber: Analyzing a Ransomware Attack Methodology To Enable Protection

Ransomware is a common method of cyber extortion for financial gain that typically involves users being unable to interact with their files, applications or systems until a ransom is paid. Accessibility of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin has directly contributed to this ransomware model. Based on...

Cerber: Analyzing a Ransomware Attack Methodology To Enable Protection

Ransomware is a common method of cyber extortion for financial gain that typically involves users being unable to interact with their files, applications or systems until a ransom is paid. Accessibility of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin has directly contributed to this ransomware model. Based on...