A ransomware attack targeting the government systems of Georgia’s Hall County also impacted key voting infrastructure it has been revealed. Local officials initially released few details regarding the Oct. 7 attack, stating that “critical systems within the Hall County Government networks” had been affected. Today, CNN reported the incident “may be the first ransomware attack to hit election infrastructure this political season.” According to Hall County spokesperson Katie Crumley, the county’s voter signature database and voting precinct map were heavily impacted by the attack. However, Crumley noted the county is in the process of bringing affected systems back online, including …

The United States has taken actions against international hackers responsible for the theft of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. On September 16, the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced it has imposed sanctions on two Russian nationals who used a sophistication phishing campaign to steal at least $16.8 million from the customers of three virtual currency exchanges in 2017 and 2018 — including two based in the United States. The pair, Danil Potekhin and Dmitrii Karasavidi, created multiple websites impersonating legitimate crypto exchanges …

The United States Internal Revenue Service has offered a bounty of up to $625,000 to anyone who can break purportedly untraceable privacy coins such as Monero (XMR) as well as trace transactions on Bitcoin’s (BTC) Lightning Network. The official proposal, published last week, says the IRS will accept submissions in the form of working prototypes until Sept. 16. If accepted, applicants will receive an initial payment of $500,000. This grant will allow applicants to develop their prototype into a working concept over the next eight months. Once the pilot test is completed and approved by the government, a further $125,000 …

Banco Estado, the only public bank in Chile and one of the three largest in the country, had to shut down its nationwide operations on Monday due to a cyberattack that turned out to be a ransomware launched by REvil. According to a public statement, the branches will remain closed for at least one day, but clarified that customers’ funds have not been affected by the incident. Citing sources close to the investigation, ZDNet reported that the REvil ransomware gang is behind the attack. It reportedly originated from an Office document infected with the malware that an employee received and …

Government officials in Argentina are refusing to negotiate with a ransomware group that forced them to briefly close all immigration checkpoints on Aug. 27. According to a Sept. 6 report on Bleeping Computer, a group of Netwalker ransomware hackers breached Argentina's immigration agency, Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, on Aug. 27 and initially demanded a $2 million payment to restore its servers. "Your files are encrypted,” stated a ransom note on a Tor payment page sent to the immigration agency. “Only way to decrypt your files is [sic] buy the decrypter program.” The group posted a select batch of sensitive data …

There is still an element of the crypto “Wild West” in 2020, as cryptocurrency stolen through hacks and ransomware attacks is still being cashed out on major exchanges around the world. Ransomware attacks have proved to be a lucrative cash cow for cybercriminals over the past few years, with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation estimating that over $144 million worth of Bitcoin was stolen between October 2013 and November 2019. A press conference held by the FBI in February revealed the huge amount paid out in ransom to attackers by victims that were desperate to regain access to …

A young Russian citizen and his co-conspirators came within an inch of carrying out a major ransomware attack against Tesla — unaware that their target had already turned them in. Last week, the United States Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) unsealed a criminal complaint against a conspirator in a thwarted ransomware plot against the electric car maker Tesla. On Aug. 22, the Bureau arrested 27 year-old Russian citizen Pavel Kriuchkov in Los Angeles, who had allegedly spent much of his month in the U.S. attempting to recruit a Tesla staffer at the firm’s Gigafactory Nevada site to collude on a nefarious …

Researchers have uncovered evidence that over $1 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from addresses linked to Ryuk ransomware attacks was moved through a wallet on Binance. According to a report by Forbes on Aug. 23 the researchers took a sample of 63 transactions, representing $5.7 million of the over $61 million estimated by the FBI to have been stolen using the Ryuk ransomware. Of the $5.7 million, $1,064,865 worth of Bitcoin from multiple wallet addresses was bounced through numerous non-connected wallets before eventually finding its way to Binance, where it was cashed out. The Binance wallet has been in use …

The University of Utah’s College of Social and Behavioral Science confirmed that they were hit by a ransomware attack on July 19. According to a statement issued by the University, the gang left many computers inaccessible for several hours as staff took servers offline to prevent the malware from spreading to other machines on the school’s network. Following internal discussion, officials decided to work with the school’s cyber insurance provider to pay a $457,059 ransom in order to prevent a data leak. Staff from the university clarified that the insurance policy paid part of the ransom and they covered the …

The new work-from-home culture is gaining more traction than ever before as businesses, government departments and schools try to remain afloat while flattening the pandemic curve. This migration to remote working is a double-edged sword that creates a fertile land for cybercriminals to thrive on. There is no way that cyberattacks can be eliminated completely. The best that companies can do is minimize the frequency of the threats. What is ransomware? Cybercriminals use malicious software code to block people or organizations from accessing their computer systems until a ransom has been paid. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) have made it …

Details of a week-long negotiation between the University of California and a NetWalker ransomware gang have been revealed by Bloomberg. The University’s School of Medicine was working on a vaccine for Covid-19 in June this year when seven of its servers were locked down by the hackers. Against the advice from FBI, the university took matters into its own hands and conducted private negotiations. The university negotiator used flattery, appealed to the hackers sense of sympathy and ethics, and managed to reduce the ransom amount from as much as $6M, down to just over $1 million in Bitcoin (BTC) and …

Ransomware gang REvil, known also as Sodinokibi, claims to have mounted a successful attack against the U.S. wine and spirits giant, Brown-Forman Corp — but the company claims otherwise. The company is the official manufacturer of Jack Daniels whiskey. According to cybersecurity services provider, AppGate, the famous alcoholic beverages manufacturer did fall victim to an attack but refused to pay the ransom demanded by REvil. However, Brown-Forman Corp told Infosecurity-Magazine in a statement they had successfully prevented cybercriminals from encrypting its files. This does not necessarily mean the gang’s claim to have compromised the internal network and stolen sensitive data …