A Short History & Evolution of Ransomware

Apr 17, 2016 4:44:24 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Ransomware attacks cause downtime, data loss, possible intellectual property theft, and in certain industries a ransomware attack is now looked at as a possible data breach. Ransomware is ...

CTB-Locker Ransomware Uses Blockchain to Store & Deliver Decryption Keys

Apr 16, 2016 4:48:21 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

A mysterious update in the behavior of the CTB-Locker ransomware strain alerted security researchers to pull some strings and see what was going on. The CTB-Locker ransomware family, ...

Ransomware On Pace To Be A 2016 $1 Billion Dollar Business

Apr 16, 2016 10:34:21 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

CNN Money reports about new estimates from the FBI that show the costs of ransomware have reached an all-time high this year. Threat actors made $209 million in the first quarter of 2016 ...

They Shoot Files, Don't They? Jigsaw Ransomware Does...

Apr 14, 2016 11:07:29 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

By Eric Howes, KnowBe4 Principal Lab Researcher. A few days ago our friends at BleepingComputer.com announced the discovery of a new form of ransomware, which they dubbed Jigsaw ...

Pinellas Man Falls Victim To Ransomware

Apr 14, 2016 10:00:00 AM By TAMPA BAY, FL

Pinellas County resident Scott Germak thought he was getting free Tampa Bay Rays tickets based on a phishing email that appeared to be a legitimate message coming from GTE Financial, his ...

The Future Of Ransomware: CryptoWorms?

Apr 12, 2016 2:52:36 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Cisco's Talos Labs researchers had a look into the future and described how ransomware would evolve. It's a nightmare. They created a sophisticated framework for next-gen ransomware that ...

CryptoHost Ransomware Locks Files In A Password Protected RAR File

Apr 10, 2016 6:42:50 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

A new ransomware strain called CryptoHost was discovered, which claims that it encrypts your data and then demands a ransom of .33 bitcoins to get your files back (~140 USD at the current ...

Maktub Ransomware Knows Where You Live

Apr 9, 2016 7:58:27 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

It's happening in the UK today, and you can expect it in America tomorrow [correction- it's already happening today]. The bad guys in Eastern Europe are often using the U.K. as their beta ...

More About Petya Hard Disk Lock BSoD Ransomware

Apr 3, 2016 11:48:28 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

[UPDATE April 10, 2016] Petya's ransomware's encryption has been defeated and a password generator has been released. See bottom of the post. March 25, news came out about a new type of ...

It's CONFIRMED: MedStar Receives A Massive Ransomware Demand

Mar 31, 2016 8:15:40 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

It is now confirmed, The MedStar Hospital Chain was hit with ransomware and has received a digital ransom note. A Baltimore Sun reporter has seen a copy of the cybercriminal's demands. ...

I am introducing a new phishing term: "Attackment"

Mar 29, 2016 1:50:35 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Phishing attacks usually have a payload of infected attachments. With the recent ransomware attacks on hospitals I was asked for a press quote and the word "Attackment" suddenly came into ...

Ransomware Attack Shuts Down Medstar Washington Hospital

Mar 28, 2016 8:29:51 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

The Washington Post reported that a ransomware infection penetrated the computer network of MedStar Health early Monday morning, forcing the Washington health care behemoth to shut down ...

Survey: 62% of Companies Lack Confidence in Ability to Confront Ransomware Threat

Mar 26, 2016 9:37:29 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Tripwire just published a new study which suggests that a majority of businesses might not be adequately prepared to either prevent or fully recover from ransomware infections. They ...

New Ransomware Written In Windows PowerShell

Mar 25, 2016 3:28:53 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Lucian Constantin at CSO had the scoop. A new ransomware program written in Windows PowerShell is being used in attacks against enterprises, including health care organizations, ...

PETYA ransomware Locks Users Out by Overwriting Master Boot Record

Mar 25, 2016 2:47:26 PM By TAMPA BAY, FL

Security researchers at Trend Micro have found a new type of ransomware that doesn’t encrypt specific files but makes the entire hard drive inaccessible. The malware has been named Petya ...

New Maktub Ransomware Strain - Beautiful And Dangerous

Mar 25, 2016 10:43:28 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Maktub Locker is the name of a new Russian strain of ransomware. The word Maktub is Arabic for "fate", suggesting it is inevitable you will get infected with ransomware. They have spent a ...

Tampa Bay Business Owner Affected By Ransomware

Mar 25, 2016 10:00:00 AM By TAMPA BAY, FL

Ransomware continues to be a successfull business for the cybercriminals of the world. It can easily get past even the best anti-virus software through a user just clicking once on ...

TeamViewer Denies It Is Surprise Ransomware Infection Vector

Mar 23, 2016 7:09:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

A modified version of EDA2, an open source ransomware strain developed by Turkish computer engineering student Utku Sen, --by the way, thanks Utku, that was a very smart idea-- has been ...

FBI and Microsoft Warn Against Hybrid Targeted Samas Ransomware Attack

Mar 21, 2016 11:53:55 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The FBI and Microsoft have issued a new alert, a warning of hybrid targeted ransomware attacks that attempt to encrypt an organization’s entire network. This is a new approach where ...

Chinese hackers behind U.S. ransomware attacks - security firms

Mar 20, 2016 12:06:36 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Reuters was the first out with a story about criminal Chinese hackers also trying to get into the ransomware racket. They started out with: "Hackers using tactics and tools previously ...

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