Triton got into a petrochemical plant
In the summer of 2017, a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia experienced a worrisome security incident that cybersecurity experts consider to be the first-ever cyber attack carried out with “a blatant, flat-out intent to hurt people.” The attack involved a highly sophisticated new malware strain called Triton, which was capable of remotely disabling safety systems inside the plant with potentially catastrophic consequences. It all started when someone launched a spear phishing attack and someone else clicked a link they should not have clicked.
Luckily, a flaw in the Triton code triggered a safety system that responded by shutting down the plant. If it hadn’t been for that flaw, the hackers could have released toxic hydrogen sulfide gas or caused explosions. As ... Read More
Insurance companies pay off ransomware
Fasten your seat belt. Ransomware may be poised to return as a top scourge for companies, as more and more of them pay up—actually their insurance companies pay up. They try to minimize the cost of recovery.
In this new RSA Conference 2019 Threatpost video, Josh Zelonis, senior analyst at Forrester Research, discusses the next great security threats to enterprises.
According to Zelonis, a new trend of victims paying off the ransoms could reverse the wane in ransomware attacks that has been seen in the last year or so. Here is a snippet from the interview:
Cheaper for insurance companies
Tara Seals: "Before we kick off our video interview here, you had mentioned that you’ve been seeing a trend of companies actually paying the ransomware when they ... Read More
Ransomware Authors Agreed to $400,000
Officials in Jackson County, Georgia, paid $400,000 to cybercriminals last month. That was the extortion fee to get an encryption key for a ransomware infection and regain access to their IT systems. The County hired a cyber-security consultant to negotiate a ransom fee with the hacker group. Jackson County officials have not yet confirmed how hackers breached their network.
The infection forced most of the local government's IT systems offline, with the exception of its website and 911 emergency system.
"Everything we have is down," Sheriff Janis Mangum told StateScoop in an interview. "We are doing our bookings the way we used to do it before computers. We're operating by paper in terms of reports and arrest bookings. We've continued to function. It's just more ... Read More
Phishing and File Sharing
Internet thieves have long used file sharing sites and services to host their malicious files. When they do this, they typically use the underlying service to generate download links that anyone can click without logging in to the hosting service.
Over the past month we started noticing apparently legitimate Dropbox emails pushing links to files with names suspiciously similar to those routinely used by the bad guys. When we clicked the links to check, however, we were greeted with a demand to log in to the service. That's typically been a sign that the files involved were legit.
Still, something wasn't right here. Given the file names presented, we reckoned there was little chance those files were innocuous. So, we decided to log in to ... Read More
Traditional intellectual property thinking no longer applies
In the era of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence, the concept of intellectual property (IP) faces unprecedented challenges. As AI systems become increasingly capable of generating creative works and innovations, the traditional notions of IP become obsolete.
Here are three reasons why I think intellectual property no longer exists in its current form in the AI era:
Blurred lines of authorship and inventorship in intellectual property
AI systems can now create content and develop solutions that rival human-generated works. This capability blurs the lines between human and machine-generated content, creating significant challenges to traditional concepts of authorship and inventorship. When an AI system creates a piece of art or develops a new formula, determining ownership becomes complex. Is it the AI itself, the ... Read More
Ransomware knocked most systems offline
Officials in Jackson County, Georgia, paid $400,000 to cyber-criminals this week to get rid of a ransomware infection and regain access to their IT systems. The County hired cyber-security consultant to negotiate ransom fee with hacker group. Jackson County officials have not yet confirmed how hackers breached their network.
The infection forced most of the local government's IT systems offline, with the exception of its website and 911 emergency system.
"Everything we have is down," Sheriff Janis Mangum told StateScoop in an interview. "We are doing our bookings the way we used to do it before computers. We're operating by paper in terms of reports and arrest bookings. We've continued to function. It's just more difficult."
Jackson County officials notified the FBI and hired a cyber-security consultant. ... Read More
Extortionists demand money even though no agreement made
Anyone who depends upon good public opinion can be vulnerable to orchestrated bad word-of-mouth, especially in the form of online reviews.
Podcasters are being targeted by extortionists who threaten to swamp their shows with negative reviews, according to Mark Asquith at Rebel Base Media. Asquith cites one recent case in which a scammer reached out to a podcaster on social media and offered to promote their show.
When the podcaster expressed interest, the scammer didn’t respond for several days. After that, the scammer sent a message informing the target that they’d been promoting the target’s podcast for the past few days. The scammer then demanded hundreds of dollars in payment for this supposed service. “No agreement had even been discussed, ... Read More
Office Depot $300 scam - yes, it really happened
I'm sure you've heard something about the Office Depot $300 fraud. For a thorough explanation, see https://cybersafetynet.net/office-depot-faked-malware-scans-to-sell-unneeded-300-tech-services/. Basically, Office Depot's malware scan reported malware on computers that did not have malware. Office Depot then sold an unnecessary $300 service. Today I am writing about how that would look in other industries.
We have a high level of trust in those who provide professional services. We go to them when we sense a problem and need their training, judgement and professionalism to turn the problem into a solution. Let's see how this would play out in another industry.
Electrical
Your kitchen has a refrigerator, microwave oven and coffee maker. You discover that you can run two at the same time, but ... Read More
New Cybersecurity best practices
In December 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published the “Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices (HICP): Managing Threats and Protecting Patients” publication. This new directive offers cybersecurity best practices that healthcare organizations of any size can implement. Originally posted by Fred Langston CISSP, CCSK at CI.Security.
I’ve been doing health industry cybersecurity for a long time, which has led to my involvement in helping to craft cybersecurity policy for the healthcare industry. One of my first experiences was back in 1996, when I was part of the working group that provided guidance on the proposed HIPAA Security Rule. That rule established certain standards for security moving forward. The resulting risk-based approach was meant to allow the vastly different types and sizes ... Read More
Water utilities are popular targets
It wasn't the first time the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District and its wastewater counterpart had been hit by "ransomware," a type of malware that encrypts victims' computer files and demands online payment to unlock them.While operations weren't harmed, the infection prompted the water district to switch out its information technology service provider and call in the FBI. The case, first reported by the Coloradoan, remains under active investigation. FCLWD and the South Fort Collins Sanitation District treat and distribute water to 45,000 customers in northern Colorado.Colorado water officials aren't alone in their cybersecurity woes. The nation's nearly 70,000 water and wastewater utilities are struggling to keep their heads above a rising tide of online threats, based on interviews with security experts ... Read More