U.S. Can Expect to see more Ransomware Attacks

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In the cybersecurity space, there are many things we do not all agree on, but one thing I have noticed in the past year is that we all agree that the U.S. can expect to see more ransomware attacks as the nation recover from recent attacks which included the District of Columbia Police Department, The Colonial Pipeline and now the JBS meat plant. These will continue to increase, especially in the state, local environment, as well as in the critical infrastructure and manufacturing space. There are two main reasons for this trend: 1. Organizations are not implementing the basic security controls thus allowing attackers to take advantage of easy attack vectors. A major of the critical infrastructure in the U.S. are operated by private organizations with very little IT and security regulations. 2. Many organizations are frequently deciding to pay the ransom after they have been attacked. Security researchers and law enforcement often recommend organizations not to pay the ransoms, but when stakeholders and the media are applying pressure, organizational leader must do what is best for the organization. This validates the ransomware industry and their frequency and tactics become more sophisticated. This recent attack seems to have a Russian’s group fingerprint associated to it just like the pipeline event. Many security researchers, law enforcement officials and politicians are recommending in conjunction to increasing regulations on U.S. based organizations, the U.S. must also impose sanctions against countries that allow these types of activities to occur inside their borders.

Bad Ending for Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) after a Ransomware Attack

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A group of ransomware hackers known as “Babuk” leaked internal police files from the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).  The information was stolen in late April. 

Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Attack

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One of the nation's largest fuel pipelines has been forced to shut down after being affected by a ransomware cyberattack.  Ransomware is a form of malware that encrypts a victim's files. The attacker then demands a ransom from the victim to restore access to the data upon payment. 

The Capital One Data Breach and What Can You Do to Protect Yourself

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In one of the biggest data breaches, a hacker by the name Paige Thompson gained access to more than 140,000 Social Security numbers, 1 million Canadian Social Insurance numbers and 80,000 bank account numbers, in addition to an undisclosed number of people's names, addresses, credit scores, credit limits, balances, and other information. 

MyFitnessPal Data Breach

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n February 2018, the diet and exercise service MyFitnessPal suffered a data breach. The incident exposed 144 million unique email addresses alongside usernames, IP addresses and passwords stored as SHA-1 and bcrypt hashes (the former for earlier accounts, the latter for newer accounts).

First it was Marriott, now Quora has been Hacked…

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100 million Quora users may have had their data accessed by an unauthorized third party. Quora is actively investigating the incident, and has already taken steps to improve its security.

Marriott Data Breach and What You Need to Know

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Marriott International said its Starwood guest reservation database was breached, exposing the personal info of about 500 million customers.

Eurostar Customers Reset Passwords After Security Breach

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Eurostar forced all of its customers to reset their passwords after indications of a possible breach by hackers attempted to access user accounts.

Cyberwar Season 1 – Episode 2: The Sony Hack

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At that time (2014) the Sony Hack was one of the worst attacks against a corporation. Not only were embarrassing emails released, personal health records of employees and their family and social security numbers to name a few were dumped.

LifeLock’s Customer emails made Vulnerable

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Identity theft protection firm LifeLock may have actually exposed customers to additional attacks from ID thieves and phishers