FBI Director Christopher Wray, appearing before a Senate committee last month, confirmed that the bureau and law enforcement partners had obtained a universal decryption key for REvil.

REvil Revelations: Law Enforcement Behind Disruptions

Mathew J. Schwartz • October 22, 2021

The outages of the notorious REvil - aka Sodinokibi - ransomware operation have been due to a coordinated law enforcement effort involving the U.S. and foreign partners, aimed at disrupting the group's attack capabilities, Reuters reports.

Leadership & Executive Communication

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Challenges in Cybersecurity

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3rd Party Risk Management

Profiles in Leadership: Mustapha Kebbeh, CISO, Brinks

Incident & Breach Response

Positive Security: Inspiring Behavioral Change at Workplace

Former DHS Official to Lead HHS' HIPAA Enforcement Agency

Latest

Cryptocurrency Fraud

CoinMarketCap: No Breach Despite 3.1M Email Address Leak

Jeremy Kirk • October 25, 2021

CoinMarketCap says it has found no evidence of a data beach despite the circulation of a list of 3.1 million email addresses that correlates with accounts on its service. Regardless of the source, the list would be useful for attackers to launch phishing attacks against those interested in cryptocurrency.

Governance & Risk Management

Troublemaker CISO: Do You Know What You Should Be Doing?

Ian Keller • October 25, 2021

In his second Rant of the Day for the CyberEdBoard Profiles in Leadershop blog, Ian Keller, security director at Ericsson and CyberEdBoard executive member, talks about what a CISO does - and what a CISO should do.

Blockchain & Cryptocurrency

ISMG Editors’ Panel: Regulators Get Tough on Crypto Firms?

Anna Delaney • October 22, 2021

In the latest weekly update, four ISMG editors discuss: a federal judge imposing the maximum sentences on a hacker who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and aggravated identity theft, regulators getting tougher on cryptocurrency lending platforms and the return to in-person roundtables.

3rd Party Risk Management

Ransomware Warning: Are Businesses Stepping Up?

Anna Delaney • October 22, 2021

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report features an analysis of whether businesses are stepping up their ransomware defenses in response to several warnings released by the U.S. and U.K. governments highlighting the threat posed to infrastructure. Also featured are the Thingiverse data breach and airline fraud...

Fraud Management & Cybercrime

Hacker in UPMC Data Theft, Fraud Case Gets Maximum Sentences

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee • October 20, 2021

A federal judge has imposed the maximum sentences - a total of seven years in prison - on a hacker who earlier pleaded guilty in a conspiracy case involving the hacking of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center human resources databases and the theft of personal information of 65,000 employees - some which was sold...

Endpoint Security

Why Reporting Security Bugs Can Be Fraught With Tension

Jeremy Kirk • October 20, 2021

Reporting security vulnerabilities to organizations with no disclosure policies can be fraught with tension. In the worst conflicts, security researchers could face lawsuits or even prosecution. Some experts say laws should provide a safe harbor for responsible security research.

Critical Infrastructure Security

Preparing for Ransomware Attacks in the Education Sector

Anna Delaney • October 19, 2021

A spate of ransomware incidents affecting the education sector has led to the loss of student coursework, financial records and data relating to COVID-19 testing. Matthew Trump, senior IT security officer for the University of London, U.K., outlines incident response strategies.

Business Continuity Management / Disaster Recovery

BlackMatter Ransomware Defense: Just-In-Time Admin Access

Mathew J. Schwartz • October 19, 2021

How many ways do U.S. businesses need to be told to lock down their systems to safeguard themselves from ransomware? That's the focus of a new, joint cybersecurity advisory from the U.S. government pertaining to BlackMatter, following an advisory issued last month about Conti.

Breach Notification

Accenture: Ransomware Attack Breached Proprietary Data

Mathew J. Schwartz • October 18, 2021

Accenture says an online attack against it that it first disclosed in August resulted in "the extraction of proprietary information by a third party, some of which was made available to the public by the third party." The LockBit 2.0 ransomware operation has taken credit for the attack and dumping data.

Breach Notification

Thingiverse Breach: 50,000 3D Printers Faced Hijacking Risk

Jeremy Kirk • October 18, 2021

A data breach affecting MakerBot's Thingiverse 3D printing repository website is far bigger than what the company has acknowledged, a former employee claims. Upwards of 2 million users may have been affected by the breach, which left their 3D printers at risk of being hijacked.

3rd Party Risk Management

ISMG Editors' Panel: Are Our Systems Too Complex to Secure?

Anna Delaney • October 15, 2021

In this update, four editors discuss key cybersecurity issues, including addressing the complexity of security, the rising number of victims targeted by double extortion ransomware and the Information Commissioner's Office's recent consultation on creating an international data transfer agreement.

Cybercrime

BlackByte: Free Decryptor Released for Ransomware Strain

Mathew J. Schwartz • October 15, 2021

A free decryptor for BlackByte ransomware has been released by security researchers at Trustwave who cracked the crypto-locking malware's encryption. But they say that unfortunately, the underlying encryption problem is likely in the process of already being fixed by the malware's developer.