A ransomware attack targeted the government systems of Georgia’s Hall County that impacted key voting infrastructure. It has been reported by CNN that Local officials initially released few details by stating that “critical systems within the Hall County Government networks” had been affected. However, the incident “may be the first ransomware attack to hit election infrastructure this political season.” Katie Crumley, the spokesperson of Hall County, said that the county’s v

Banco Estado, the only public bank in Chile, had to shut down its nationwide operations on September 7 (Monday) due to a cyberattack that turned out to be a ransomware launched by REvil. It has been reported according to a public statement that the branches will remain closed for at least one day but clarified that customers’ funds have not been affected by the incident. Información importante sobre nuestra red de atención pic.twitter.com/CfFeb9tCzK — BancoEstado (@BancoEstad

The University of Utah’s College of Social and Behavioral Science confirmed that they were hit by a ransomware attack. It has been reported by the University that the gang left many computers inaccessible for several hours as staff took servers offline to prevent the malware from spreading to other machines on the school’s network. However, after internal discussion, officials decided to work with the school’s cyber insurance provider to pay a $457,059 ransom in order to prev

The DoppelPaymer gang deployed a ransomware attack against Boyce Technologies, the FDA-approved coronavirus ventilator manufacturer, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been reported that the gang lists example files of the data stolen during the attack, including sales and purchase orders, assignment forms, among others. However, the cybercriminals have threatened that more information will be disclosed next week through the site if an undisclosed crypto ransom is not paid

The Maze ransomware group has attacked multinational corporation Canon, which stole its email and storage services and its US website on July 30, as Maze has threatened to leak the pics and data if a crypto ransom is not paid. It has been reported that the image.canon site was out for six days during which it showed updates. It went back into service on August 4. However, Canon put out a statement that day about the attack saying that there had been no leak of image data, nor

CWT (formerly Carlson Wagonlit Travel), the US-based corporate travel firm, has paid $4.5 million in a Bitcoin (BTC) ransom to hackers who stole sensitive files from the company. On July 31, it has been reported by Reuters that representatives from CWT paid ransomware hackers 414 Bitcoin on July 27, around $4.5 million at the time, over two transactions. However, blockchain data shows the criminals transferred the funds to a different address within an hour. The attackers sai

The No More Ransom decryption tool repository, an initiative launched by Europol to combat ransomware attacks, has saved individuals $632 million in ransom demands since 2016. It has been reported by Europol that the repository is celebrating its fourth anniversary. Over the past four years, the repo has gathered over 4.2 million visitors from 188 countries thanks to a compilation of tools from 163 partners. However, the initiative’s website lists 100 different tools covering

Evil Corp, the Russian cybergang, has attacked Garmin, a multinational tech company, which has been operating at less than full capacity after a ransomware attack, as the tech company is being extorted for a $10 million ransom, to be paid in cryptocurrency. It has been reported by Bleeping Computer that an unidentified Garmin employee confirmed that the WastedLocker ransomware took down the company’s customer support services, navigation solutions, and other aspects of the US

The UK National Cyber Security Centre has released a report that reveals a growing trend in ransomware attacks against the sports sector. On July 23, it has been reported that the centre noted a recent example in which attackers demanded that an English Football League club (EFL) pay a multi-million dollar ransom in Bitcoin (BTC). However, according to the Cyber Threat to Sports Organizations paper, the unnamed club was targeted by ransomware that crippled their corporate sec

The University of York has confirmed that a ransomware attack from an unnamed gang took place in May, as vulnerabilities from their third-party service provider led to the data breach. It has been reported in an announcement the University’s website that Blackbaud, one of the world’s largest customer relationship management systems for sectors such as the education, confirmed that the cybercriminals managed to extract copies of staff, alumni, and student records. However, the

Telecom, the largest telecommunications company of Argentina, has fallen victim to a ransomware attack, as hackers are demanding $7.5 million in Monero (XMR), an amount that will rise to $15 million if the company does not pay within 48 hours. It has been reported by El Tribuno that the ransomware attack, which specifically affected Telecom’s call center, took place on July 18, as the ransomware was ultimately contained by the Argentinian conglomerate’s IT workers. The compan

A recent study by cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows has revealed that over 15 billion credentials are in circulation via dark web. This represents a 300% increase since 2018. The available information ranges from network access credentials, banking login data, and even streaming services accounts from Netflix with part of the leaked data are circulating even for free. New research from @photon_research uncovers more than 15 billion credentials in circulation in #cybercrimina

A report by the malware lab Emsisoft revealed a strong decline in successful ransomware attacks between January and April 2020 in the US public sector amidst the COVID-19 crisis, as researchers have recently noticed that trend reversing, with incidents now starting to increase. It has been reported by Emsisoft that the figures show a decline in comparison to the 966 targeted establishments that were successfully attacked at the cost of $7.5 billion. However, during the Q1 and

The US Secret Service has issued a security alert about ransomware attacks, targeting managed service providers (MSPs) of both the US private sector and various government entities. It has been reported by ZDNet that threat actors have been widely relying on ransomware attacks, point-of-sale intrusions, and business e-mail compromise scams to breach the internal networks of MSP customers. However, MSPs are service providers related to remote management software for enterprise

Avaddon ransomware is exploiting Excel 4.0 macros to distribute malicious e-mails, as these e-mails contain attachments that deploy an attack when opened in any version of Excel. It has been reported that Avaddon ransomware emerged in early June through a massive spam campaign that randomly targeted its victims. Some patterns seem to indicate that the ransomware mostly targets Italian users. However, BleepingComputer has reported that the attackers behind the ransomware are r

EvilQuest, a new ransomware, has targeted macOS users who downloaded installers for popular apps via torrent files. It has been reported that the attack was first spotted by Dinesh Devadoss, a K7 Lab malware researcher, whose findings show that EvilQuest has been quite active since the start of June 2020. #macOS #ransomware impersonating as Google Software Update program with zero detection. MD5: 522962021E383C44AFBD0BC788CF6DA3 6D1A07F57DA74F474B050228C6422790 98638D7CD7F

Research from Microsoft reveals that Indonesia was hit hard by cryptojacking and ransomware attacks across the Asia Pacific region in 2019. It has been reported that the region continues to experience a “higher-than-average” encounter rate for ransomware and other malware attacks, posting figures 1.6 and 1.7 times higher than the rest of the world. However, Microsoft says that Indonesia had a 10.68% malware attack rate during 2019. While this does represent a 39% decrease, th

The University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine has paid a $1.14 million ransom in cryptocurrencies to the hackers behind a ransomware attack on June 1. It has been reported by CBS San Francisco that the UCSF IT staff first detected the security incident by stating that the attack launched by the NetWalker group affected “a limited number of servers in the School of Medicine.” As the areas were isolated by experts from the internal network, the hackers left t

A study by Proofpoint, the cybersecurity firm, shows that phishing-based ransomware attacks are on the rise amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been reported that first-stage deployments of ransomware are reportedly on the rise and have mostly been targeting the United States, France, Germany, Greece, and Italy. However, the attacks appear to be capitalizing on the influx of people now working from home amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Research additionally indicates that the r

Symantec, a cybersecurity firm, has blocked a ransomware attack by a group known for demanding payment in Bitcoin directed at 30 US-based firms and Fortune 500 companies. It has been reported in an announcement by the cybersecurity firm that the Evil Group, the malware gang behind the attacks, targeted the IT infrastructures of the firms. Still, the companies were alerted in time to prevent deployment of the ransomware. However, the group used the ransomware WastedLocker and