The Colonial Pipeline Hack Is a New Extreme for Ransomware

An attack has crippled the company’s operations—and cut off a large portion of the East Coast’s fuel supply—in an ominous development for critical infrastructure...

Major U.S. Pipeline Crippled in Ransomware Attack

A ransomware attack has halted pipeline activities for the Colonial Pipeline Co., which supplies the East Coast with roughly 45 percent of its liquid fuels. In a statement released on Saturday, Colonial Pipeline said it has temporarily halted pipeline operations in response to a cyberattack...

Ryuk Ransomware Attack Sprung by Frugal Student

A European biomolecular research institute involved in COVID-19 research lost a week’s worth of research data, all thanks to a Ryuk ransomware attack traced back to a student trying to save money by buying unlicensed software. Security researchers at Sophos described the attack in a report...

Proxylogon: A Coinminer, a Ransomware, and a Botnet Join the Party

Our telemetry showed three malware families taking advantage of the ProxyLogon vulnerability beginning in March: the coinminer LemonDuck was sighted first, quickly followed by the ransomware BlackKingdom, then the Prometei botnet...

CISA Releases Analysis Reports on New FiveHands Ransomware

CISA is aware of a recent, successful cyberattack against an organization using a new ransomware variant, known as FiveHands, that has been used to successfully conduct a cyberattack against an organization. CISA has released AR21-126A: FiveHands Ransomware and MAR-10324784-1.v1: FiveHands...

Phishing Attacks Spawn Three New Malware Strains

Two waves of global financial phishing attacks that swamped at least 50 organizations in December have delivered three new malware families, according to a report from FireEye’s Mandiant cybersecurity team. On Tuesday, the team said that they’ve dubbed the hitherto-unseen malware strains...

Scripps Cyberattack Causes Widespread Hospital Outages

Scripps Health, a hospital network based in San Diego, was hit by a cyberattack over the weekend, forcing some critical-care patients to be diverted, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Scripps acknowledged the attack in a statement but didn’t specify whether it was a ransomware incident...

A week in security (April 26 – May 2)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at which age range is most likely to be targeted by online predators, talked to Malwarebytes CISO John Donovan on our Lock and Code podcast, and explored the latest deepfake happenings. We also dug into a supply chain attack, discussed threats from a...

A Rust-based Buer Malware Variant Has Been Spotted in the Wild

Cybersecurity researchers on Monday disclosed a new malspam campaign distributing a fresh variant of a malware loader called "Buer" written in Rust, illustrating how adversaries are constantly honing their malware toolsets to evade analysis. Dubbed "RustyBuer," the malware is propagated via email...

The Convergence of Endpoint Protection with Detection & Response

By almost every account, trend, or metric, the cybersecurity threat landscape is getting worse year over year. According to Qualys Labs, 2020 saw the highest number of vulnerabilities ever recorded. The average time it takes to patch vulnerabilities is months not weeks or days. Ransomware payouts...

Researchers Uncover Iranian State-Sponsored Ransomware Operation

Iran has been linked to yet another state-sponsored ransomware operation through a contracting company based in the country, according to new analysis. "Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC was operating a state-sponsored ransomware campaign through an Iranian contracting company called...

A Ransomware Group Hit DC Police—Then Pivoted to Extortion

Warrantless searches, tracking troops, and more of the week’s top security news...

Task Force delivers strategic plan to address global ransomware problem

The Ransomware Task Force RTF, a think tank composed of more than 60 volunteer experts who represent organizations encompassing industries and governments, has recently pushed out a comprehensive and strategic plan for tackling the increasing threat and evolution of ransomware. The report, entitl...

Hackers Exploit SonicWall Zero-Day Bug in FiveHands Ransomware Attacks

An "aggressive" financially motivated threat group tapped into a zero-day flaw in SonicWall VPN appliances prior to it being patched by the company to deploy a new strain of ransomware called FIVEHANDS. The group, tracked by cybersecurity firm Mandiant as UNC2447, took advantage of an "improper S...

This Week in Security News - April 30, 2021

Hacktivism’s reemergence explained and Hello ransomware uses updated China Chopper web shell...

Babuk Ransomware Gang Mulls Retirement

Just a few days after hackers bragged about purportedly raiding the computer systems of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department MPD and doxxing what looked like its data, the Babuk ransomware-as-a-service RaaS gang prepared a goodbye note saying that they’re hanging up its spurs...

DoJ Task Force: Taking Down the Ransomware Economy

Ransomware has reached crisis levels across business sectors and across the globe, but a public-private Ransomware Task Force aims to stem the tide of attacks by disrupting the crooks’ business model. Join Threatpost for “Fortifying Your Business Against Ransomware, DDoS & Cryptojacking Attacks” ...

Task Force Seeks to Disrupt Ransomware Payments

Some of the worlds top tech firms are backing a new industry task force focused on disrupting cybercriminal ransomware gangs by limiting their ability to get paid, and targeting the individuals and finances of the organized thieves behind these crimes. In a 81-page report delivered to the Biden...

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...

Threat Source Newsletter (April 29, 2021)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Good afternoon, Talos readers. Ransomware is not just financial extortion. It is crime that transcends business, academic and geographic boundaries. Talos was proud to assist with a newly released report from the international Ransomware Task... This is only th...