Ransomware Response: To Pay or Not to pay

Recently, I was speaking with a CISO friend of mine and he mentioned that his company suffered a breach. I asked if it was a ransomware attack, and sadly, that was the case. Malware had infected nearly every connected computer. Clearly there was a breakdown in protective controls, but Ill get to...

'Anonymous' FTP Servers Leaving Healthcare Data Exposed

Hackers craving personal health care information are targeting exposed FTP servers. The FBI issued a warning last week that focused on an increase in criminal activity targeting FTP servers used by medical and dental organizations that are configured to allow anonymous access without...

Comey Talks Strong Crypto, Silent on WikiLeaks

CHESTNUT HILL, Ma.—FBI director James B. Comey today revived the Going Dark discussion during a keynote address at the Boston Conference on Cyber Security, saying it’s time for an adult conversation on the prevalence of strong encryption and how it hinders criminal and national security...

DOJ Dismisses Playpen Case to Keep Tor Hack Private

Intent on keeping details private about how it hacked the Tor browser, prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday asked to dismiss a case involving a suspect who visited the Playpen dark web child pornography site in 2015. “The government must now choose between disclosure of...

FBI Releases Article on Romance Scams

The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI has released an article addressing the rise of Internet romance scams. In this common type of fraud, cyber criminals target victims, gain their confidence, and trick them into sending money. To stay safer online, review the FBI article on Romance Scams and...

US Judge Ordered Google to Hand Over Emails Stored On Foreign Servers to FBI

In this world of global mass surveillance by not the only US, but also intelligence agencies across the world, every other country wants tech companies including Google, Apple, and Microsoft to set-up and maintain their servers in their country to keep their citizen data within boundaries. Last...

Anonymous Hacker took down over 10,000 Dark Web Sites; Leaked User Database

Dark Web is right now going through a very rough time. Just two days ago, a hacker group affiliated with Anonymous broke into the servers of Freedom Hosting II and took down more than 10,000 Tor-based .onion dark websites with an alarming announcement to its visitors, which said: "Hello, Freedom...

Trump Cyber Executive Order Calls for 60-Day Review

President Donald Trump cited the hack of the Democratic National Committee as a “good example” for the need of a stronger cyber security measures for both the private and public sector. “The Democratic National Committee was hacked successfully, very successfully, and terribly successfully,” Trum...

Half of Ransomware Victims Pay Criminals' Demands to Recover Data

A report on ransomware sheds new light on attacks in 2016, starting with the fact that 48 percent of businesses hit by ransomware said they paid the ransom. That’s in spite of pleas from cyber security experts and the FBI not to do so. Other insights include the average ransom payment was $2,500...

AG Nominee Backs Law Enforcement's Ability to 'Overcome' Encryption

President Donald Trump’s attorney general pick Jeff Sessions has amplified the encryption debate with comments he made during Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings last week stating law enforcement should be able to “overcome” digital locks in criminal investigations. Sessions’ positio...

St. Louis Public Library Recovers from Ransomware Attack

Services are being restored to the St. Louis Public Library computer system after a ransomware attack last Thursday impacted access to machines and data at all 17 branches. Library management refused to pay the $35,000 demanded as ransom, and IT staff wiped affected servers and restored them from...

Russian Hacker behind 'NeverQuest' Malware, Wanted by FBI, Is Arrested in Spain

A Russian computer hacker wanted by the FBI on hacking allegations was arrested and jailed in Spain earlier this week, while a decision on his extradition to the United States has yet to be made. The Guardia Civil, Spanish law enforcement agency officers, have detained 32-year-old Stanislav Lisov...

Cloudflare Shares National Security Letter It Received in 2013

Thanks to the lifting of a gag order, on Tuesday security firm Cloudflare was finally able to post a National Security Letter it received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation back in 2013. Cloudflare’s counsel Kenneth R. Carter acknowledged the lifting of the order and said the letter is part...

KillDisk Ransomware Targets Linux; Demands $250,000 Ransom, But Won't Decrypt Files

What you'll do if Ransomware infects you? Should you pay or not to recover your files? Believe me, the FBI advises - Pay off the criminals to get your files back if you don't have a backup. But paying off a ransom to cyber criminals is definitely not a wise option because there is no guarantee...

Update — Hacker Claims to Have Hacked the FBI, But It Wasn't

Update: A hacker yesterday claimed to have hacked the FBI's website running on Plone CMS, but it seems it wasn't hacked using any zero-day vulnerability in Plone. We contacted Plone security team and updated this story see below with official statements. A hacker, using Twitter handle CyberZeist,...

FBI-DHS Report Links Fancy Bear Gang to Election Hacks

In a report released Thursday the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Department of Homeland Security implicated Russian hacking group Fancy Bear in attacks against several election-related targets. According to the Joint Analysis Report, the hacking group Fancy Bear, believed to have ties...

On IoT Botnets, Ransomware, and More

Mike Mimoso, Tom Spring, and Chris Brook recap 2016’s biggest news stories, including the proliferation of IoT botnets, the rise of ransomware, the FBI vs. Apple battle, Yahoo, and a rash of old password breaches. Download: Threatpost2016YearinReview.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves...

Congressional Group Says Encryption Backdoors Are a Bad Idea

The Congressional Encryption Working Group released its year-end report that concluded that encryption backdoors do more harm than good. The 12-page report said that “any measure that weakens encryption works against the national interest.” The bipartisan congressional panel recommended that the...

'MethBot' Ad Fraud Operators Making $5 Million Revenue Every Day

The biggest advertising fraud ever! A group of hackers is making between $3 Million to $5 Million per day from United States brands and media companies in the biggest digital ad fraud ever discovered. Online fraud-prevention firm White Ops uncovered this new Ad fraud campaign, dubbed "Methbot,"...

FBI Most Wanted Fugitive JPMorgan Hacker Arrested in New York

One of the FBI's most wanted hackers who was behind the largest theft of financial data has finally been arrested at the JFK airport in New York. Joshua Samuel Aaron is accused of being part of a hacking group that attacked several major financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, and...