REvil is Off-Line

This is an interesting development: Just days after President Biden demanded that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia shut down ransomware groups attacking American targets, the most aggressive of the groups suddenly went off-line early Tuesday. … Gone was the publicly available "happy blog" th...

Try This One Weird Trick Russian Hackers Hate

In a Twitter discussion last week on ransomware attacks, KrebsOnSecurity noted that virtually all ransomware strains have a built-in failsafe designed to cover the backsides of the malware purveyors: They simply will not install on a Microsoft Windows computer that already has one of many types o...

British Hacker Sentenced to 5 Years for Blackmailing U.S. Companies

A UK man who threatened to publicly release stolen confidential information unless the victims agreed to fulfill his digital extortion demands has finally pleaded guilty on Monday at U.S. federal district court in St. Louis, Missouri. Nathan Francis Wyatt , 39, who is a key member of the infamous...

Ransomware: 30 Years and Still Going Strong

In the tech world, systems – and methods to break said systems – seem to evolve by the minute. Technological advancement grows exponentially each year, and the realm of cybersecurity is no exception. However, some entities have survived and even thrived over the decades, rather than falling...

This Week in Security News: Facebook and Faxploits

Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. This week, Facebook removed 652 fake accounts originating from Russia and Iran. Also, Microsoft identified and removed fake internet domains that...

How Digital Extortion Impacts Today’s Enterprises

By now, many enterprise decision-makers are familiar with the concept of digital extortion, particularly in the form of ransomware. These encryption-based attacks lock users out of their sensitive and valuable data, applications and operating systems. Attackers demand a ransom in the form of...

The Role That IT Security Teams Need to Play in Connected Hospitals

The WannaCry outbreak that reportedly raked in US$1B in damage costs also forced doctors to cancel scheduled appointments, among other things, brought on warranted concern over pervasive ransomware attacks that could stem from oft-overlooked components of healthcare networks—exposed medical cyber...

TippingPoint Threat Intelligence and Zero-Day Coverage – Week of January 29, 2018

Late last year, Trend Micro introduced its Security Predictions for 2018. One of the predictions stated that digital extortion will be at the core of most cybercriminals’ business model. It’s much more than just ransomware – it is the most successful criminal business model in the current threat...

This Week in Security News: Magic Quadrants & Global Threats

Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. This week, Gartner released its Magic Quadrant Leaders, Data Privacy Day gave us a moment to reflect, and U.K. and U.S. governments alike acted to...

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...