New Locky-Variant Ransomware: What MSPs and MSSPs Need to Know
As an IT professional, you know how relentless ransomware attacks have become in today’s landscape. Recently, a variant of the notorious Locky ransomware has become part of a large-scale email-based campaign managing to slip past the defenses of some unsuspecting companies. On August 9, the first campaign of a massive, worldwide ransomware attack was detected—and […]
Ransomware is growing, are you prepared?
The damage caused by global ransomware is predicted to exceed $5 billion in 2017, according to researcher Cybersecurity Ventures. Up from $325 million in 2015, the costs represent not just the amount of the ransom, but also the costs of downtime and lost productivity. Ransomware is any type of malicious software that infects a computer […]
Destruction of service: How ransomware attacks have changed
The latest wave of ransomware attacks, including WannaCry, Petya and NotPetya, show not only an increase in sophistication of these types of attack, but also a change in motivation. Although NotPetya is ostensibly a ransomware variant, the threat actors appeared to have no interest in making money, and were more concerned about damaging companies by […]
Getting A Grip On the Latest Hacking Attacks
The world is feeling scarier by the day. North Korea’s missile threats are no laughing matter. The television news pairs feel-good stories about Fourth of July celebrations with ominous notes about shows of force by police at those same events. And nobody seems to know quite what to think about an outbreak of hacking attacks […]
Uber admits it failed on consumer privacy, settles with FTC
“Remember when Uber employees were reportedly tracking their ex-girlfriends and Beyoncé with a secret God View feature? Uber just admitted that it had flaws in its privacy guarantees. The ride-hailing giant agreed to settle charges from the Federal Trade Commission that it deceived customers by failing to monitor employee access to their personal information and […]
HBO’s Twitter accounts hacked in latest cyberattack
“Premium cable channel HBO has fallen victim yet again to a hacker attack. This time its official Twitter account was broken into, along with accounts for several of its most popular shows. A group calling itself OurMine gained control of HBO’s main account Wednesday night, according to the Hollywood Reporter. It left a message in […]
How To Avoid Cyber Attacks: 5 Best Practices From SEC And FINRA
Regulators agree that cybersecurity threats pose significant risks to financial firms, investors and the markets. As a result, cybersecurity practices are a key focus for regulatory examinations this year for both the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). At the recent 2017 FINRA Annual Conference, David Kelley, Surveillance […]
HACKER WHO STOPPED WANNACRY CHARGED WITH WRITING BANKING MALWARE
“Just three short months ago, security researcher Marcus Hutchins entered the pantheon of hacker heroes for stopping the WannaCry ransomware attack that ripped through the internet and paralyzed hundreds of thousands of computers. Now he’s been arrested and charged with involvement in another mass hacking scheme—this time on the wrong side. Yesterday authorities detained 22-year-old […]
Hacker Claims To Be Holding HBO Data For Ransom
“The persons behind the hack have already released a dump of a little more than 3 GB worth of data, the AP says — mostly internal documents about the company’s network, a month’s worth of email from one executive’s account, and a few draft scripts from Game of Thrones. That’s a mere fraction — 2%, […]
THE BIGGEST CYBERSECURITY DISASTERS OF 2017 SO FAR
The first six months of 2017 have seen an inordinate number of cybersecurity meltdowns. And they weren’t just your standard corporate breaches. It’s only July, and already there’s been viral, state-sponsored ransomware, leaks of spy tools from US intelligence agencies, and full-on campaign hacking. And that’s just the beginning. Let this recap of 2017’s biggest […]