Items tagged with Ransomware
Ransomware is a significant problem for individuals and organizations today. However, it can be a particularly big problem for healthcare organizations and has the potential to cost lives during the COVID-19 pandemic raging around the world. Microsoft says that during this time of crisis as organizations move towards...
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Security researchers at Sophos have been investigating a pair of ransomware attacks where the attackers used legitimate, digitally signed hardware driver to delete security products from targeted computers. Once the security products were deleted from the target machines, the destructive file encryption portion of the...
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Many computer users know that Microsoft doesn't email you about Windows updates, but many people unfortunately still fall for spam tricks. There is a new malicious spam campaign going around that tells users to download a critical Windows update. If users install the attached file, Cyborg ransomware is then loaded on...
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How much does a ransomware or data breach attack affect hospital services? A recent study determined that hospitals who had been hit by a cyber attack witnessed increased death rates among patients with heart issues. Cyber attacks and the remediations that follow frequently increase the amount of time a patient waits...
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Security researchers have discovered it is possible to hack a digital SLR camera with Wi-Fi capabilities (fast becoming a common feature in modern DSLR cameras) to install ransomware, thereby hijacking a user's photographs. Just as it happens on a PC, the photos would be encrypted, with the attacker threatening to...
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iDefense engineers recently discovered an updated version of MegaCortex Ransomware that targets corporations in Europe and North America. Hackers have demanded anywhere from 2 to 600 Bitcoins or $20,000 to $5.8 million USD from victims.
MegaCortex ransomware could traditionally only be installed by the hacker...
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Security researchers at ESET have discovered an active ransomware campaign targeting Android users, thus ending a two-year decline in this form of malware in Google's mobile ecosystem. And unlike past ransomware campaigns, this one employs "some unusual tricks" to attract victims, and then spreads to contacts through...
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Security researchers at Bitdefender have updated a decryption tool to deal with the latest version of GandCrab, a popular form of ransomware that its authors sold to clients on the dark web for a supposedly enormous profit. The decryption tool is free, and could potentially save a GandCrab victim from a major...
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It is said that no good deed goes unpunished, but on the flips side, there are bad deeds that get rewarded. So it goes for the hackers responsible for GandCrab, a popular form of ransomware that was sold to clients on the dark web, who are now retiring and going legitimate with their earnings.
The hackers claim...
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Where is Neo when you need him? We don't have an answer for that, but Morpheus has been making an appearance on some business PCs, just not in the manner you might think. His mug is part of a message that is delivered by a new ransomware strain called "MegaCortex," which is a misspelled reference to MetaCortex, the...
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No information is safe in the Internet age. Citycomp, an Germany-based IT services company, reported that they had been hacked and blackmailed. Some of their clients include Oracle, Airbus, Toshiba, Volkswagen, Leica, and Porsche.
Citycomp is an IT services company that provides items such as servers, storage, and...
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Over the past few days, a deadly storm has been coursing its way across the southern United States heading eastward. A number of states -- including Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia have been rocked by high winds, tornadoes, and flash flooding. With the storm affecting millions of Americans, many turned...
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Just when we thought things had cooled down a bit in the botnet space, we're getting word of a new outbreak that it affecting PC users in the United States. Virobot has multi-pronged attack vector, and can not only place a victim's computer into a zombie botnet, but it also has a ransomware component.
According to...
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Researchers have discovered a new strain of malware for Android devices that combines different styles of attack into a single package.
Called MysteryBot, the new malware hits victims with a banking Trojan, keylogger, and ransomware in one fell swoop. The good news here is that the cybercriminals responsible for...
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Normally when you think about ransomware you think about something clearly malicious such as Petya and others. You could get your files back if infected with Petya, but the hackers wanted $300 in bitcoin to do it. A new kind of ransomware, however, is making the rounds and this variant is based on the game PUBG...
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We are only months removed from the massive WannaCry cyberattack that hit hundreds of thousands of computers in over 150 countries, crippling some hospitals in the United Kingdom. WannaCry became an overnight global scare after spreading far and wide within the first few hours. Up until now, it was not clear where...
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The largest spam botnet in the world has a new trick up its sleeve, prompting security outfit Check Point to place it back in its list of the top ten most prevalent malwares. Called Necurs, the botnet dished up more than 12 million emails in a single morning during the Thanksgiving holiday. What makes it even more...
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WannaCry Ransomware Attack That Crippled UK Hospitals Could Have Been Avoided With Basic IT Security
You might think that the massive number of security breaches that have happened in recent years would push corporate giants and medical facilities out there to take a look at their own security and ensure that their networks are protected. We are only a few months removed from the massive attack that breached Equifax...
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Microsoft has found a way to fight back against the growing threat of ransomware, a devious type of malware that encrypts files and folders on a victim's PC and then demands a ransom—oftentimes in Bitcoin due to its anonymity—in exchange for unlocking the user's data. Some ransomware strains even come with a timer...
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This has been a bad year for wide-scale ransomware attacks, where malware encrypt a user's computer and demands payment to unlock the machine. The two major ransomware attacks that have happened in 2017 include WannaCry and ExPetr (or Petya and NotPetya as they were also called). The hackers behind WannaCry cashed out...
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Cybercriminals have developed a new form of Android ransomware that gives victims added incentive to pay up. In addition to scrambling the user's data with an AES encryption algorithm, the new ransomware replaces an infected device's personal identification number (PIN) with one that is randomly generated, effectively...
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TrendMicro has published a report that claims that a "sizable" spam campaign is underway and other than just having a bunch of unwanted email to contend with, the spam campaign is also pushing ransomware. The spam campaign is said to be distributing the latest variant of Locky, which is the ransomware that invaded...
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