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 ...

SURVEY: Even if You Don't Pay, Ransomware Attacks Are Very Expensive

Mar 19, 2016 11:37:16 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

According to a new survey by Intermedia called "2016 Crypto-Ransomware Report", ransomware attacks are increasingly targeting larger companies, costing them dearly. Employees are usually ...

TeslaCrypt Ransomware v3.01 Updated With Unique Keys For Each Victim

Mar 17, 2016 11:47:04 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

TeslaCrypt is a relatively new ransomware variant which has made it in the Top 5, and has rapidly innovated in its efforts to evade detection. The latest version which is one of the most ...

Ransomware Attacks Use NY Times, BBC, Other Media Sites

Mar 16, 2016 10:26:09 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Over the weekend, The NY Times, BBC, Newsweek, AOL, MSN, The HIll and other major news sites had their ad networks hijacked again by criminals using the Angler Exploit Kit to deliver ...

Inoculate Employees Against The Locky Ransomware

Mar 15, 2016 3:56:57 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

KnowBe4 has immediately responded to Dridex's Locky ransomware attack by releasing a new attachment option which is called "MS Office document with Macro". This new option allows a ...

Deadly Dridex Cybercrime Gang Has Just Moved Into Ransomware

Mar 14, 2016 11:21:36 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

One thing that is driving mainstream recognition of ransomware is the move by the Dridex banking Trojan gang into ransomware with their Locky strain. They have taken over from CryptoWall, ...

The structure of Russia's exports in 2014, including ransomware

Mar 12, 2016 1:30:01 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Check the orange slice depicting the percentage of ransomware exports. I found this on someone's twitter feed and loved it!

Weird New Cerber Ransomware Speaks To Its Victims

Mar 6, 2016 9:42:27 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

There is a new strain of ransomware called Cerber that takes creepiness to the next level. It drops three files on the victim's desktop named "# DECRYPT MY FILES #." These files contain ...

44% of ransomware victims in the UK have paid to recover their data

Feb 20, 2016 11:05:06 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Danielle Correa at SC Magazine wrote: "A Bitdefender global study with respondents from the UK, the US, France, Germany, Denmark and Romania was conducted by iSense Solutions to discover ...

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