- Ireland: ‘Wizard Spider’ cybercrime gang claim Health Service Executive attack
May 18, 2021
Hackers known as Wizard Spider are spinning a web of chaos since it launched a ransomware attack on the Health Service Executive last week. The Russian hackers have claimed responsibility for the most serious ever cyberattack on Ireland’s critical infrastructure. The group, who are seeking ransom of up to €20 million in cryptocurrency, are not motivated by ...
- ‘We won’t pay ransom,’ says Ireland after attack on health service
May 17, 2021
Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) has ruled out giving in to hackers’ demands as the country’s healthcare and social services continue to deal with the disruption caused by a significant ransomware attack that occurred a few days ago. The HSE has now confirmed that a ransom has been sought by the attackers, although the exact amount ...
- Ireland: Health service IT systems forced to shut down after ‘fairly sophisticated’ cyber attack
May 14, 2021
Health service IT systems have been shutdown today following a cyber attack that the HSE believes was carried out by international criminals seeking to extort money . The HSE said the main attack began at around 4.30am on Friday and that IT staff switched off systems as a “precaution” in order to protect data and give ...
- How UK National Health Service learned the lessons of WannaCry to protect hospitals from attack
May 13, 2021
Four years ago, the UK’s National Health Service suddenly found itself one of the most high-profile victims of a global cyberattack. On 12 May 2017, WannaCry ransomware hit organisations around the world, but hospitals and GP surgeries throughout England and Scotland were particularly badly affected. A significant number of services were disrupted as malware encrypted computers ...
- US and Australia warn of escalating Avaddon ransomware attacks
May 10, 2021
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) are warning of an ongoing Avaddon ransomware campaign targeting organizations from an extensive array of sectors in the US and worldwide. The FBI said in a TLP:GREEN flash alert last week that Avaddon ransomware affiliates are trying to breach the networks of manufacturing, ...
- San Diego: Scripps Health Cyberattack Causes Widespread Hospital Outages
May 3, 2021
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. It’s also unknown whether the adversaries compromised any patient records ...
- Passwordstate password manager hacked in supply chain attack
April 23, 2021
Click Studios, the company behind the Passwordstate enterprise password manager, notified customers that attackers compromised the app’s update mechanism to deliver malware in a supply-chain attack after breaching its networks. Passwordstate is an on-premises password management solution used by over 370,000 security and IT professionals at 29,000 companies worldwide, as the company claims. Its customer list includes ...
- Just What The Cyber Doctors Ordered – OT For Pharmaceutical Companies
April 20, 2021
Several digital attacks against pharmaceutical companies have made news in the past few years. Back in 2017, for instance, Merck fell victim to NotPetya. The wiper malware spread to the pharmaceutical giant’s headquarters, rendered years of research inaccessible, affected various production facilities and caused $1.3 billion in damages, according to Bloomberg News. A couple of ...
- The Security dilemma of smart factories [Part 3] Fundamental security risks in robot languages
April 19, 2021
Industrial robots are the core of the automation of manufacturing processes in smart factories, and are the most important components as they support the manufacture of all kinds of products such as automobiles, aircraft, processed foods, and pharmaceuticals. In addition, as equipment that realizes unmanned manufacturing in the post-COVID-19 world where minimal or no contact ...
- Victorian government earmarks AU$30m to lift hospital cyber capabilities
April 15, 2021
The Victorian government plans to invest a total of AU$30 million to upgrade and modernise the IT infrastructure of 28 of the state’s hospitals and health services in a bid to guard against further cyber attacks. The AU$30 million will be divided amongst hospitals across Melbourne and regional and rural health services. Melbourne hospitals will receive ...
- Industries critical to COVID-19 response suffer surge in cloud cyberattacks
April 6, 2021
Industries and organizations critical to the fight against COVID-19 have faced a surge in cyberattacks due to their rapid transition to cloud platforms in light of the pandemic. When the world first began to take notice of the global spread of COVID-19, organizations across the globe suddenly found themselves unable to maintain typical working practices. Offices were ...
- APT Charming Kitten Pounces on Medical Researchers
March 31, 2021
Security researchers have linked a late-2020 phishing campaign aimed at stealing credentials from 25 senior professionals at medical research organizations in the United States and Israel to an advanced persistent threat group with links to Iran called Charming Kitten. The campaign—dubbed BadBlood because of its medical focus and the history of tensions between Iran and Israel–aimed ...
- Fake Websites Used in COVID-19 Themed Phishing Attacks, Impersonating Brands Like Pfizer and BioNTech
March 25, 2021
In April 2020, we reported on a large influx of COVID-19 themed phishing attacks starting in February 2020. With March 2021 marking the one-year anniversary that the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, we revisited the phishing trends we observed in the past year to gain deeper insight into the various COVID-related topics that ...
- NHS boss’s Twitter accounts hacked by PS5 scammers
March 19, 2021
NHS executive Helen Bevan had her two Twitter accounts, with nearly 140,000 followers, stolen by hackers and used to promote fake PlayStation 5 sales. She now has the accounts back but has received dozens of messages from people who fell for the scam. Ms Bevan also paid money to someone who said they could help – but ...
- FBI Releases the Internet Crime Complaint Center 2020 Internet Crime Report, Including COVID-19 Scam Statistics
March 17, 2021
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has released its annual report. The 2020 Internet Crime Report includes information from 791,790 complaints of suspected internet crime—an increase of more than 300,000 complaints from 2019—and reported losses exceeding $4.2 billion. State-specific statistics have also been released and can be found within the 2020 Internet Crime Report and ...
- $4,000 COVID-19 ‘Relief Checks’ Cloak Dridex Malware
March 17, 2021
Cybercriminals have wasted no time in hopping on the American Rescue Plan – the COVID-19 relief legislation just signed into law – as a lure for email-based scams. According to researchers at Cofense, a campaign began circulating in March that capitalized on Americans’ interest in the forthcoming $1,400 relief payments and other aid. The emails impersonate ...
- COVID-19: Examining the threat landscape a year later
March 15, 2021
A year ago — everything changed. In an effort to stem the tide of a rapidly spreading pandemic, the world shut down. Shops were forced to shut their doors, and whole countries were placed on stringent lockdowns. Schools were closed around the world, with more than one billion children affected, and the vast majority of ...
- Security and Privacy of COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Apps
March 12, 2021
Symantec analyzed the top 25 COVID-19 national contact-tracing apps to see which follow security and privacy best practices. Unfortunately, in this new COVID-19 era it’s not just our computers we have to protect from infection, but also ourselves and our loved ones. Along with social distancing, wearing a mask, and washing our hands, technology is also ...
- Hackers access surveillance cameras at Tesla, Cloudflare, banks, more
March 9, 2021
Hackers gained access to live surveillance cameras installed at Tesla, Equinox, healthcare clinics, jails, and banks, including the Bank of Utah. In addition to images captured from the cameras, the hacker also shared screenshots of their ability to gain root shell access to the surveillance systems used by Cloudflare and at Telsa HQ. Hacks multiple cameras in ...
- Universal Health Services lost $67 million due to Ryuk ransomware attack
March 1, 2021
Universal Health Services (UHS) said that the Ryuk ransomware attack it suffered during September 2020 had an estimated impact of $67 million. UHS, a Fortune 500 hospital and healthcare services provider, has over 90,000 employees who provide services to roughly 3.5 million patients each year in more than 400 US and UK healthcare facilities. UHS said last ...