The past few months have seen a new ransomware variant emerge that is being distributed by the TrickBot malware. The appearance of this new ransomware, named Conti, corresponded with an observed decrease in Ryuk deployments. This suggested that Conti is the “successor” of Ryuk. Some media outlets have also reported that Conti was an evolved version of Ryuk, suggesting that it has evolved from the RYUK source code. While this may have been true for very early samples, a Red Sky analysis of recent
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American toy manufacturing giant Mattel this week revealed that it fell victim to a ransomware attack that impacted some of its operations. Founded in 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California, Mattel is one of the largest toy sellers in terms of revenue, with its operations divided into three segments, namely North America, International, and American Girl. Mattel sells products such as Barbie, Fisher-Price, Monster High, American Girl, Polly Pocket, and Hot Wheels in 150 countries, an
It should come as no reprise that ransomware groups that steal a company's data and then get paid a fee to delete it don't always follow through on their promise.
The number of cases where this has happened has increased, according to a report[1] published by Coveware this week and according to several incidents shared by security researchers with ZDNet researchers over the past few months. These incidents take place only for a certain category of ransomware attacks — namely those carried out by
The Maze cybercrime gang, which revolutionized the ransomware business by adding an extortion element to each attack, has issued a statement saying it has hung up its spikes and will retire, at least temporarily. Can you believe anything a ransomware group says? Maze posted a "retirement" notice to its darknet site on Nov. 1 saying: "This project is now closed." The word "project" appears to be a reference to the ransomware gang stating in the note that its attacks were intended to teach its v
US authorities are sharing a quick reference on Ransomware. "Ransomware is a type of malicious software cyber actors use to deny access to systems or data. The malicious cyber actor holds systems or data hostage until the ransom is paid. After the initial infection, the ransomware attempts to spread to shared storage drives and other accessible systems. If the demands are not met, the system or encrypted data remains unavailable, or data may be deleted. L
Link to full report: Ransomware_Exec
The Ryuk threat actors have struck again, moving from sending a phishing email to complete encryption across the victim’s network in just five hours. That breakneck speed is partially the result of the gang using the Zerologon privilege-escalation bug (CVE-2020-1472) less than two hours after the initial phish.
The Zerologon vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker with network access to a domain controller to completely compromise all Active Directory identity services, according to Mic
US Cyber Command, Microsoft, and Europol are attacking Trickbot's malicious infrastructure, ahead of the elections. It won't stop hackers from adapting but is expected to create breathing space during the elections. Check out these slides if you missed the webinar on October 21, 2020 to find out more:
Ransomware attacks remain the top cyber-enabled threat seen by law enforcement agencies. But phishing campaigns, business email compromises, and other types of fraud that are now using COVID-19 themes are increasing. Red Sky Alliance has members, clients, and readers from around the world and this article has been written from the European Union viewpoint, which actually applies internationally to global defense against cyber-crimes. Our source is the seventh annual Internet Organized Crime T
SMB’s Need to Prepare for Today and Tomorrow’s Cyber Threats
The cybersecurity landscape presents new challenges at businesses - every day. Please be aware of these 10 threats to help your business avoid a major attack or breach. When it comes to securing your network, software, and data from potential attackers, Small to Midsize Businesses (SMBs) have numerous concerns.
Security for increasingly mobile and online-focused businesses is a multifaceted problem, especially for SMBs that lack the
Microsoft collaborated with cybersecurity companies and government agencies to take down the million-device Trickbot botnet to help protect the November 3rd US Presidential election and stop the global spread of ransomware and other malware. The botnet has been used to distribute a variety of malicious code, including the Ryuk ransomware variant, which the US government has cited as a potential threat vector against the election.
Microsoft obtained a court order from the US District Court, East
A newly identified group of financially motivated hackers, likely based in a Russian-speaking country, has been running high-volume phishing, ransomware, and extortion campaigns in the United States, Germany, and many other countries for the last four years, using the Clop ransomware and various backdoors in their operations.
Researchers at Mandiant have been tracking the group since 2016 and have responded to a number of intrusions in which the group, known as FIN11, has used initial access to
A new ransomware has emerged online threatening Android security. This new malware triggers on an infected phone as soon as the victim presses the Home key. Researchers at Microsoft are warning about a new strain of mobile ransomware that takes advantage of incoming call notifications and Android's Home button to lock the device behind a ransom note.
The findings concern a variant of a known Android ransomware family called, "MalLocker.B" which has resurfaced with new techniques. This malware
A US digital marketing provider has exposed almost three million records containing personally identifiable information (PII) after another cloud configuration mistake. The privacy snafu at Friendemic, whose main clients are reportedly US car dealerships, was discovered by researchers at Comparitech. As is usual in these cases, the unencrypted data was left exposed to the public Internet with no password or authentication required to access it. Research earlier this year found that misconfigu
Throughout the USA, State and County election computer networks are still vulnerable to cyber-attacks and Election Day is only 29 days. In a little-noticed episode in 2016, an unusual number of voters in Riverside, California, complained that they were turned away at the polls during the primary because their voter registration information had been changed.
The Riverside County district attorney, Mike Hestrin, investigated and determined that the voter records of dozens of people had been tampe
The popularity of ransomware threats does not seem to be decreasing. Instead, more and sophisticated ransomware threats are being deployed. Ragnar Locker is a new data encryption malware in this style.
The actors behind Ragnar Locker partnered with the Maze ransomware gang as a means of extorting victims whose unencrypted data they had stolen. This continued cooperation between ransomware gangs is a dangerous development. The sharing of advice. Tactics and a centralized data leak platform bet
French container shipping company CMA CGM was hit by a major cyber-attack on 27 September 2020, which disrupted its daily operations. According to Lloyd’s of London Intelligence sources, several of the company’s Chinese offices were affected by Ragnar Locker ransomware. CMA CGM initially claimed that their booking system was disabled by an internal IT issue, but later confirmed “external access to CMA CGM IT applications are currently unavailable” after the ransomware attack.
CMA CGM is worki
A new cybercriminal group called OldGremlin has been targeting Russian companies including banks, industrial enterprises and medical firms with ransomware attacks.
Researchers have said that OldGremlin’s first activities began between late March and early April 2020. The group took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic in early lures (a common theme for ransomware strains during this time period, sending financial institutions purported recommendations on how to organize a safe working environment
The back-to-school season has already been stressful for schools and families. Now a spate of ransomware attacks targeting K-12 schools has made it even more challenging. In May 2020, the FBI warned schools about the increasing risk of ransomware attacks during the pandemic. The agency warned that cyber actors would likely increase targeting of K-12 schools as an "opportunistic target" as more institutions shift from in-person learning to online classes and teachers and staff rely on remote ac
What will happen if the November 2020 election results are tampered, blocked or disappear? Both parties will cry foul and blame the other party. Will the voters every really know the final results and how long could it possibly take for both national parties to agree upon an outcome? The blame may need to be placed with the hackers and ransomware criminals who have been attacking governments, businesses, and organizations with no let-up in sight. State and local governments and their agencie
Ransomware is here to stay. Recent alerts from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) report that there is no end in sight. There are many versions of ransomware in use and group and nations behind the extortion attempts. These cyber actors are motivated by money. Ransomware can be described simply as a type of malware from crypto virology that threatens to publish the victim's data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid. While some simple ransomware
