Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

If they don't know what they're doing, you might never get your data back interview It's the biggest threat today, but it took her a while to appreciate it. After spending two decades at the FBI and much of that time working to intercept and stop cyber threats from the likes of China and Russia, Halcyon Ransomware Research Center SVP Cynthia Kaiser says she was a "latercomer to really wanting to focus on ransomware."…

PLUS: China's Great Firewall springs a leak; FBI issues rare 'Flash Alert' of Salesforce attacks; $10m bounty for alleged Russian hacker; and more Infosec In Brief 15 ransomware gangs, including Scattered Spider and Lapsus$, have announced that they are going dark, and say no more attacks will be carried out in their name.…

PLUS: Ransomware gang using tech support scam; Czechia accuses China of infrastructure attack; And more! Infosec In Brief Despite last week’s FBI announcement that it helped to take down the crew behind the Lumma infostealer, the malware continues to operate.…

Michael Daniel also thinks Uncle Sam should increase help to orgs hit by ransomware INTERVIEW Uncle Sam's cybersecurity apparatus can't only focus on China and other nation-state actors, but also has to fight the much bigger damage from plain old cybercrime, says former White House advisor Michael Daniel. And the Trump administration's steep cuts to federal government staff are making that a lot harder.…

Some employees steal sticky notes, others 'borrow' malicious code A crew identified as a Chinese government-backed espionage group appears to have started moonlighting as a ransomware player – further evidence that lines are blurring between nation-state cyberspies and financially motivated cybercriminals.…

Plus: 'Largest-ever' duff traffic tsunami clocks in at 5.6 Tbps In addition to Chinese spies invading organizations' networks and ransomware crews locking up sensitive files, botnets blasting distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks can still cause a world of hurt — and website downtime — and it's quite likely your competitors are to blame.…

Also sanctions his employer – an outfit called Sichuan Silence linked to Ragnarok ransomware The US Departments of Treasury and Justice have named a Chinese business and one of its employees as the actors behind the 2020 exploit of a zero-day flaw in Sophos firewalls…

Also: Mystery US firm compromised by Chinese hackers for months; Safe links that aren't; Polish spy boss arrested, and more Infosec in brief Still smarting over that grocery disruption caused by a ransomware attack on supply chain SaaS vendor Blue Yonder? Well, now you have someone to point a finger at: the Termite ransomware gang.…

Plus: Wray tells how bureau helps certain victims negotiate with ransomware crooks China-backed spies are said to have tore down their own 260,000-device botnet after the FBI and its international pals went after them.…

Allegedly swiped more than 5.2M files and threatens to publish the lot Ransomware gang Hunters International reportedly claims to have stolen more than 5.2 million files belonging to the London branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), a Chinese state-owned bank and financial service corporation, and set a deadline of September 13 to release all the data.…

Microsoft, Mandiant, weigh in with info about methods used by Andariel gang alleged to have made many, many, heists The US Department of Justice on Thursday charged a North Korean national over a series of ransomware attacks on stateside hospitals and healthcare providers, US defense companies, NASA, and even a Chinese target.…

And it would seriously inconvenience the Chinese and Russians, too RSAC There's a way to vastly reduce the scale and scope of ransomware attacks plaguing critical infrastructure, according to CISA director Jen Easterly: Make software secure by design.…

Alleged crim bought SmartScreen Killer, Cobalt Strike on dark-web markets A criminal claiming to be an ALPHV/BlackCat affiliate — the gang responsible for the widely disruptive Change Healthcare ransomware infection last month —  may have ties to Chinese government-backed cybercrime syndicates.…

CitrixBleed patch has been available for around a month China's largest bank, ICBC, was hit by ransomware that resulted in disruption of financial services (FS) systems on Thursday Beijing time, according to a notice on its website.…

Plus: Philippine state health insurance knocked offline by ransomware, China relaxes data export laws, and more Asia in brief Zhu Su, co-founder of fallen crypto business Three Arrows Capital (3AC), was arrested last Friday at Changi Airport in Singapore as he attempted to leave the country.…

It's not all doom and gloom because ML also amplifies defensive efforts, probably Bots like ChatGPT may not be able to pull off the next big Microsoft server worm or Colonial Pipeline ransomware super-infection but they may help criminal gangs and nation-state hackers develop some attacks against IT, according to Rob Joyce, director of the NSA's Cybersecurity Directorate.…

Money paid by healthcare facilities to North Korean group traced through blockchain and Chinese launderers Federal law enforcement officials this week said they seized about $500,000 that healthcare facilities in the United States paid to the Maui ransomware group.…

They're not lying when they say 'We stole your data' – the lie is about which data they lifted A state-sponsored Chinese threat actor has used ransomware as a distraction to help it conduct electronic espionage, according to security software vendor Secureworks.…

Also: Uni details its malware-catching AI, signs of China poking the Russian cyber-bear, and more In brief Somerset County, New Jersey, was hit by a ransomware attack this week that hobbled its ability to conduct business, and also cut off access to essential data.…

Also, Chinese IT admin jailed for deleting database, and the NSA promises no more backdoors In brief The notorious Russian-aligned Conti ransomware gang has upped the ante in its attack against Costa Rica, threatening to overthrow the government if it doesn't pay a $20 million ransom. …