UK Firms pay £200m in ransoms to hackers

Gangs of cybercriminals forced British companies to pay out more than £200 million in ransoms last year, experts have revealed. The extortionists, many from Russia or Eastern European countries, are targeting well-known businesses with malicious software and then charging them tens of millions of pounds to regain access to networks. Companies fearful of public embarrassment,… Read More

A Patient Dies After Ransomware Attack Paralyzes German Hospital Systems

The incident marks the first recorded casualty as a consequence of cyberattacks on critical healthcare facilities, which has ramped up in recent months. The attack, which exploited a Citrix ADCCVE-2019-19781vulnerability to cripple the hospital systems on September 10, is said to have been ‘misdirected’ in that it was originally intended for Heinrich Heine University, according… Read More

Hamstrung by ransomware, 10 hospitals are turning away some patients

All three hospitals that make up the DCH Health System in Alabama were closed to new patients on Tuesday as officials there coped with an attack that paralyzed the health network’s computer system. The hospitals—DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa, Northport Medical Center, and Fayette Medical Center—are turning away ‘all but the most critical new… Read More

Baltimore ransomware nightmare could last weeks more, with big consequences

It’s been nearly two weeks since the City of Baltimore’s networks were shut down in response to a ransomware attack, and there’s still no end in sight to the attack’s impact. It may be weeks more before the city’s services return to something resembling normal—manual workarounds are being put in place to handle some services… Read More

DBGer Ransomware Uses EternalBlue and Mimikats to Spread Across Networks

The change was not only in name but also in the ransomware’s modus operandi. According to the researcher, whose discovery was later confirmed by an Intezer code similarity analysis, the new (Satan) DBGer ransomware now also incorporates Mimikatz, an open-source password-dumping utility. The purpose of DBGer incorporating Mimikatz is for lateral movement inside compromised networks.… Read More

Years of Police Dashcam Video Lost in Atlanta Ransomware Incident

The Atlanta Police Department has lost years worth of police car dashcam videos following the March ransomware attack that affected most of the city’s IT infrastructure. Chief Shields said footage from body-worn cameras was not compromised in the cyber-attack that crippled Atlanta city IT systems for almost two months, but only videos recorded by police… Read More

SynAck targeted ransomware uses the Doppelgänging technique

The Process Doppelgänging technique was first presented in December 2017 at the BlackHat conference. Since the presentation several threat actors have started using this sophisticated technique in an attempt to bypass modern security solutions. In April 2018, we spotted the first ransomware employing this bypass technique – SynAck ransomware. It should be noted that SynAck… Read More