Content by Mathew J. Schwartz

Report: US Weighs DNC Hacking Charges Against Russians

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  November 2, 2017

The U.S. Justice Department has identified at least six members of the Russian government that investigators believe orchestrated last year's hack of Democratic National Committee computers and dumping of stolen information and may file charges next year, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Ransomware School: Learn Lessons From How Others Fail

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  November 2, 2017

"Are we vulnerable to the attacks that are being reported in the media?" All CEOs and boards of directors should be asking that question of their information security team to ensure they don't suffer the same fate - especially when it comes to ransomware outbreaks, says David Stubley of 7 Elements.

Police: DDoS Provider Targeted Google, Pokemon, Skype

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  November 2, 2017

A 21-year-old man appeared in British court this week to face 11 charges, including using DDoS attacks to disrupt sites run by Google, Pokemon and Skype, as well as money laundering and selling malware and "crypting services."

Hilton Reaches $700,000 Settlement Over Two Data Breaches

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  November 1, 2017

Global hotel chain Hilton has reached a $700,000 settlement agreement with New York and Vermont over two separate data breaches discovered in 2015 that exposed more than 360,000 payment card numbers.

WannaCry Probe: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland React

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 31, 2017

The United Kingdom might be greater than the sum of its parts. But when it came to the WannaCry outbreak, some parts of the United Kingdom did less great than others. Here's how the governments and health boards of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are responding.

Post-WannaCry, UK Promises NHS England a Funding Injection

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 31, 2017

Following the WannaCry outbreak, the British government says it's increased cybersecurity funding for England's national health service. But in addition to funding shortfalls and poor cybersecurity practices, experts have also blamed management failures, in part by the U.K. government.

Heathrow Airport Security Plans Found on Memory Stick

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 30, 2017

Security officials at Britain's biggest airport have been left scrambling after a USB stick that reportedly contained sensitive information was found on a London street. Heathrow Airport says it has launched an investigation and is working with London's Metropolitan Police.

Postmortem Finds NHS 'Could Have Prevented' WannaCry

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 27, 2017

The National Health Service in England should have been able to block the "unsophisticated" WannaCry ransomware outbreak, U.K. government auditors have found. Security experts say the findings should be studied by senior executives across all industries to "learn from the mistakes of others."

BadRabbit Attack Appeared To Be Months In Planning

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 26, 2017

The BadRabbit ransomware attack appears to have been designed for smokescreen, disruption or extortion purposes, if not all of the above. So who's gunning for Ukraine and how many organizations will be caught in the crossfire?

Kaspersky Lab Says It Spotted APT Code, Quickly Deleted It

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 25, 2017

Anti-virus vendor Kaspersky Lab says that an internal probe has confirmed that in 2014 a PC running its anti-virus software flagged and submitted new Equation Group APT malware variants. But after an analyst realized the provenance of the source code, the firm says its CEO ordered that it be immediately deleted.

Alert: Energy Sector Hacking Campaign Continues

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 23, 2017

The U.S. government has issued a rare technical alert, warning that attackers are continuing to compromise organizations across the energy sector, often by first hacking into less secure business partners and third-party suppliers.

Fancy Bear Invites DC Conference-Goers to Install Malware

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 23, 2017

Want to infect systems used by a large swath of cybersecurity professionals in one go? Then use a malicious decoy document to target potential attendees of a NATO and U.S. Army conference on "The Future of Cyber Conflict" being held in Washington.

Surveying 17 Anti-Virus Firms on Their Security Practices

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 21, 2017

The Kaspersky Lab saga raises questions about how vulnerable any anti-virus products and back-end cloud networks might be to hacking. Asked to describe exactly what security controls they offer, here's how 17 anti-virus firms answered - or have yet to answer.

Anti-Virus: Don't Stop Believing

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 21, 2017

Will all of the anonymously lobbed U.S. government allegations against Moscow-based security vendor Kaspersky Lab send anti-virus users running for the hills? Don't let it, one security expert says, noting that ditching AV would be a gift to cybercriminals and intelligence agencies alike.

Locky Ransomware Spam Infects via Microsoft Office

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  October 20, 2017

Spammers wielding Locky ransomware have a new trick up their sleeves: the ability to infect PCs via malicious Microsoft Word documents that use the Dynamic Data Exchange application-linking feature built into Windows to push ransomware onto victims' systems.