Hamilton city announces emergency after ransomware attack
It seems like there’s a surge in ransomware attacks lately, affecting various sectors from municipal services to healthcare and even international politics. The situation in Hamilton City sounds quite serious, especially with essential services like phone lines and public transportation being disrupted since February 26,2024. Mayor Andrea Horwath’s decision to declare an emergency reflects the severity of the situation and the need for immediate action to mitigate the impact on residents.
BlackCat aka ALPHV servers blacked out after receiving $22m ransom payment
The case of BlackCat Ransomware, also known as ALPHV, is intriguing. The gang’s blackout after receiving the $22 million ransom payment raises questions about their motives and whether they were truly interested in maintaining their operations or simply seeking financial gain. The FBI’s investigation into the sudden outage will likely shed light on the matter.
American Express card details leaked in a ransomware attack
The breach involving American Express card details is deeply concerning, as it puts thousands of customers at risk of identity theft. A ransomware attack that took place on Infosys McCamish Systems last month has reportedly impacted over 57,670 customers belonging to American Express. News is now out that sensitive details like account names, expiration dates of the card holders and their CVV numbers could have been accessed by the criminals, thus pushing the customers to the verge of being targeted with identity thefts. A data breach notification was filed in the State of Massachusetts and the financial firm is offering a free 24 months of credit monitoring services to the impacted customers.
Ukraine alleges to have hacked Russia MOD via ransomware attack
The allegation from Ukraine about hacking into Russia’s Ministry of Defense via a ransomware attack adds another layer to the ongoing conflict between the two nations. If proven true, it could have significant implications for cybersecurity and international relations, highlighting the growing use of cyber tactics in modern warfare. Ukraine that is battling with Russia for the past 25 months has released a statement that it conducted a ransomware campaign that allowed it to siphon sensitive information from the servers of Russian Ministry of Defense. The campaign was launched by Kyiv’s MOD to gather intelligence about the military units of the Putin led nation and was successful as per the statement released by Main Intelligence Directorate aka GUR.
ChatGPT credentials stolen in a ransomware attack
For the past 4 days, over 225,000 credentials belonging to ChatGPT are being sold on the dark web, as a single data set. And news is out that the logins were stolen in a ransomware attack where hackers accessed information belonging to OpenAI users between January and October 2023. Cybersecurity researchers from Group-IB are yet to investigate the incident deeply and are yet to confirm that it was a file encrypting malware attack.
Fidelity Insurance falls prey to LockBit Ransomware
Fidelity Investments Life Insurance has become a victim to a ransomware attack where criminals could have apparently stolen details of over 30,000 customers belonging to the insurance firm. Stolen details include bank account details and their routing numbers, credit card details, security or access codes, state of residence info, passwords, PIN numbers used for accounts and such.
Duvel assures consistent beer supply after ransomware attack
Duvel Moortgat Brewery has assured that the supply of its beer will consistent, even its IT infrastructure was hit by a ransomware attack, disrupting the production of beer across its facilities. The company says that its stocks related to the mild alcohol was in abundance and so the supply chain will not be affected. Stormous Ransomware group has made a claim of stealing about 88GB of data from the servers of the brewery and is threatening to leak the data after March 25th,2024, if its ransom demands are not paid heed on time.
