Faux ‘DarkSide’ Gang Takes Aim at Global Energy, Food Sectors

Several organizations in the oil, gas and food sectors have received threatening emails from cybercriminals posing as DarkSide – the ransomware gang behind the Colonial Pipeline hack. According to researchers at Trend Micro, threat actors are taking advantage of the notoriety around the pipeline...

Fake DarkSide Campaign Targets Energy and Food Sectors

Threat actors behind a recent campaign pose as DarkSide in a bid to deceive targets into paying ransom...

Exclusive Ransomware Poll: 80% of Victims Don’t Pay Up

Ransomware is on the rise, but what toll does it take on the real world? Threatpost set out to answer that question in an exclusive poll aimed at taking the pulse of organizations wrestling with attacks, including looking at mitigations and the defenses organizations have in place. When viewed...

‘Fancy Lazarus’ Cyberattackers Ramp up Ransom DDoSes

A distributed denial-of-service DDoS extortion group has blazed back on the cybercrime scene, this time under the name of “Fancy Lazarus.” It’s been launching a series of new attacks that may or may not have any teeth, researchers said. The new name is a tongue-in-cheek combination of the...

U.S. Recovers $2.3 Million Ransom Paid to Colonial Pipeline Hackers

In a major blow, the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday said it has recovered 63.7 bitcoins currently valued at $2.3 million paid by Colonial Pipeline to the DarkSide ransomware extortionists on May 8, pursuant to a seizure warrant that was authorized by the Northern District of California. The...

Podcast: The State of Ransomware

Last month, ransomware group DarkSide targeted operator Colonial Pipeline Co., disrupting fuel supply in the Eastern part of the U.S. The attack on a major U.S. oil pipeline had widespread ripples: it prompted President Joe Biden to declare a state of emergency and caused substantial pain at gas...

Cyber-Insurance Fuels Ransomware Payment Surge

Ransomware victims are increasingly falling back on their cyber-insurance providers to pay the ransom when they’re hit with an extortion cyberattack. But security researchers warn that this approach can quickly become problematic. In the first half of 2020, ransomware attacks accounted for 41...

On the Taxonomy and Evolution of Ransomware

Given the frequency with which “ransomware” appears in news articles, it may be worthwhile to take a step back and actually consider what the term means. Any malware or attack that culminates in extorting ransom from the victim is commonly referred to as ransomware. The general idea is to encrypt...

FBI Warns Conti Ransomware Hit 16 U.S. Health and Emergency Services

The adversary behind Conti ransomware targeted no fewer than 16 healthcare and first responder networks in the U.S. within the past year, totally victimizing over 400 organizations worldwide, 290 of which are situated in the country. That's according to a new flash alert issued by the U.S. Federa...

Fake ransom scams targeting families of missing persons

By Deeba Ahmed FBI has issued an alert to families of missing persons to watch out for fake ransom scams in which scammers collect information about missing people from social media. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Fake ransom scams targeting families of missing persons...

Ransomware’s New Swindle: Triple Extortion

Ransomware attacks are exploding at a staggering rate, and so are the ransoms being demanded. Now experts are warning against a new threat — triple extortion — which means that attackers are expanding out to demand payments from customers, partners and other third parties related to the initial...

The Real Cost of Colonial Pipeline's $5 Million Ransom

Stopping payments would go a long way to stopping ransomware. But the choice is never quite so easy...

Ransomware Gang Leaks Metropolitan Police Data After Failed Negotiations

The cybercrime syndicate behind Babuk ransomware has leaked more personal files belonging to the Metropolitan Police Department MPD after negotiations with the DC Police broke down, warning that they intend to publish all data if their ransom demands are not met. "The negotiations reached a dead...

A Tale of Two Hacks: From SolarWinds to Microsoft Exchange

The past four months have exposed two high-profile attacks, which both had pundits declaring them the “worst-ever” and “unprecedented.” They shared other similarities – both attacked businesses rather than individuals, and affected tens of thousands of organizations. But that is where the...

DoppelPaymer Gang Leaks Files from Illinois AG After Ransom Negotiations Break Down

The ransomware gang identified as DoppelPaymer has leaked a substantial collection of files from the Illinois Office of the Attorney General OAG on a server controlled by the cybercriminal group. The move came after ransom negotiations between the two parties broke down following a ransomware...

Hackers threaten to leak stolen Apple blueprints if $50 million ransom isn't paid

Prominent Apple supplier Quanta on Wednesday said it suffered a ransomware attack from the REvil ransomware group, which is now demanding the iPhone maker pay a ransom of $50 million to prevent leaking sensitive files on the dark web. In a post shared on its deep web "Happy Blog" portal, the thre...

Ransom Gangs Emailing Victim Customers for Leverage

Some of the top ransomware gangs are deploying a new pressure tactic to push more victim organizations into paying an extortion demand: Emailing the victims customers and partners directly, warning that their data will be leaked to the dark web unless they can convince the victim firm to pay up...

Browser lockers: extortion disguised as a fine

Browser lockers aka browlocks are a class of online threats that prevent the victim from using the browser and demand a ransom. A locker is a fake page that dupes the user, under a fictitious pretext loss of data, legal liability, etc., into making a call or a money transfer, or giving out paymen...

Hades Ransomware Gang Exhibits Connection to Hafnium

The Hades ransomware gang has several unique characteristics that set it apart from the rest of the pack, according to researchers – including potentially having more than extortion on the to-do list. The group appears to use multiple nation-state tools and techniques. The researchers said that i...

Ransomware Attack Foils IoT Giant Sierra Wireless

A ransomware attack on leading internet-of-things IoT manufacturer Sierra Wireless this week ground its production activity to a halt and froze various other internal operations. The Canadian multinational manufacturer creates a broad array of communications equipment – from gateways to routers,...