1. A Financial service offering company to healthcare industry has admitted that a ransomware attack on its data firm could have led to a data breach affecting over 600 healthcare establishments. The firm that is being discussed is Professional Finance Company Inc (PFC) and was founded in the year 1904 and allows customers of various government organizations, utility firms and healthcare to pay their bills on time.
It started notifying its customers on May 5th about the data breach and accepted the fact that hackers stole some personal info from their business servers and then encrypted the systems.
Information is out that cyber criminals stole details such as names, addresses, account balances and details related to payments. There is a high probability that some files related to DOBs, social security numbers, and health insurance data were also compromised in the incident.
2.The second news is related to BlackCat Ransomware, which has doubled up its ransom demand in recent times. But the good news is that the hacking group is happy to decrease the ransom payment if the victim pays them on time and that too within a time frame of 5-7 days.
BlackCat, also known as ‘AlphaV’, ‘AlphaVM’ and ‘AlphV’ is said to have gained large from its victims such as Italian Fashion house Moncler and a European Port in February this year.
3.Third is the news related to ransomware that is being spread through fraudulent Microsoft and Google software updates. Threat actors are becoming sophisticated and their latest deeds prove as a good example; as they are using fake MS and Google software updates to induce malware into targets.
From June this year, the criminals are spreading fake updates as HavanaCrypt.
Previously, in May this year, a new ransomware dubbed as ‘Magniber’ was seen circulating on the web in disguise of Windows 10 updates.
Early this year, security researchers from Malwarebytes discovered Magnitude Exploit Kit being circulated as a fake update to Microsoft Edge.
It is wise to download software from reliable sources or turn on the automated update feature, so that the software receives patches on a regular note and that too from genuine resources.
