Technion University, one of the top technology schools in Israel, has issued a press update that most of its systems were targeted by a ransomware attack and it could be the work of the DarkBit hacking group, a gang that is opposing the government policies of Israel.
This is for the first time that the name of the DarkBit hacking group has emerged on the web and news is out that the gang demands 80 Bitcoins to release a decryption key to the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and the payment must be done within 48 hours of issuing the ransom note.
Second is the news related to Asian Nation Pakistan, which accused its neighboring nation India for launching cyber attacks on its government servers related to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Samaa TV, a Pakistani News resource, reported the incident and announced that Sidewinder Group, that is probably being funded by Indian government, stole data sets amounting to 7.5 TB from the servers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Third is the news that is showing us how low the Russian funded hacking group Killnet can stoop to; as it is believed that the hacking gang disrupted the communication link between Nato and military aircraft carrying aid to Turkey’s earthquake victims that killed at least 28,000 people and made millions homeless.
Killnet announced it launched a DDoS cyber attack on the network serving the alliance, and is repenting for the in-human deed.
Fourth is the news related to AIIMS ransomware attack that took place last year in India. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences fell prey to ransomware attack that led to disruption of services for weeks.
And parliamentarian Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the CERT-India has investigated the incident and discovered that the hackers breached about 5 servers and managed to encrypt around 1.3TB of data.
The information was revealed in the current winter session of Parliament and data is out that the government has taken all measures to prevent such incidents on governments servers in near future and will also see that the stolen data will not reach the dark web in any manner.
Fifth is the news related to medical records stealing of over 3 million people. Southern California Health Care Organizations group which includes Regal Medical Group, Lakeside Medical Organization, ADOC Medical Group and Greater Covina Medicine were targeted in a ransomware attack on December 1st of last year and the threat actors accessed and steal a ton of sensitive information.
Estimates are that the attack could have affected about 3 million patients, so all of them are being informed about the same.
Sixth, last but not the least, the news is about a Chinese balloon that was caught spying and collecting sensitive information from the US Communication systems and radars of South Carolina State. China is one of the top adversaries of the United States and the Pentagon is suspecting that more such spying operations will be launched in coming months and so it is urging public and private entities to bolster their Cybersecurity defense-line proactively.
