Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Also, US Sanction Cybercrime Enablers, Celine Dion Ticket ScamThis week, ransomware victims paying less, cybercrime sanctions, Celine Dion ticket scams, 23andMe to pay $18 million, a 13-year old Daixin infection, Spiral ransomware, Patch Tuesday, CISA ordered rapid SharePoint patching and Spanish police busted a cybercrime ring. Sore Egyptian World Cup losers.

The Iranian state-sponsored hacking group known as MuddyWater (aka Mango Sandstorm, Seedworm, and Static Kitten) has been attributed to a ransomware attack in what has been described as a "false flag" operation

Some customer orgs tell staff to block inbound email from the provider Autovista confirms that it called in outside support to help clean up a ransomware infection currently affecting systems in Europe and Australia.…

The Washington Hotel brand in Japan has announced that that its servers were compromised in a ransomware attack, exposing various business data. [...]

Security pros explore whether infection-spoofing code can immunize Windows systems against attack Feature What's better, prevention or cure? For a long time the global cybersecurity industry has operated by reacting to attacks and computer viruses. But given that ransomware has continued to escalate, more proactive action is needed.…

Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft among major customers Data I/O, a major electronics manufacturer whose customers include Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, notified federal regulators that it fell victim to a ransomware infection on August 16 that continues to disrupt its business operations.…

Akira Ransomware Exploited MFA-Protected SonicWall SSL VPNs, Say ResearchersSonicWall said it is probing a surge in attacks against its Gen 7 firewalls, running various firmware versions, which have SSL VPN enabled. Researchers said attackers may have been exploiting a zero-day vulnerability and that multiple victims have been infected with Akira ransomware.

PLUS: Crooks target hardware crypto wallets; Bad flaws in Brother printers; ,O365 allows takeover-free phishing; and more Infosec in Brief Despite warnings not to pay ransomware operators, almost half of those infected by the malware send cash to the crooks who planted it, according to infosec software slinger Sophos.…

Google threat analysts warn the team behind the Marks & Spencer break-in has moved on Cyber-crime crew Scattered Spider has infected US insurance companies following a series of ransomware attacks against American and British retailers, according to Google, which urged this sector to be on "high alert."…

Good news: The vendor patched the flaw in January. Bad news: Not everyone got the memo Ransomware criminals infected a utility billing software providers' customers, and in some cases disrupted services, after exploiting unpatched versions of SimpleHelp’s remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool, according to a Thursday CISA alert.…

Don't negotiate unless you must, and if so, drag it out as long as you can Feature So, the worst has happened. Computer screens all over your org are flashing up a warning that you've been infected by ransomware, or you've got a message that someone's been stealing information from your server.…

SimpleHelp was the vector for the attack DragonForce ransomware infected a managed service provider, and its customers, after attackers exploited security flaws in remote monitoring and management tool SimpleHelp.…

The FBI thought they shut this all down in 2023, but the duck quacked again Uncle Sam on Thursday unsealed criminal charges and a civil forfeiture case against a Russian national accused of leading the cybercrime ring behind Qakbot, notorious malware that infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide and helped fuel ransomware attacks costing victims tens of millions of dollars.…

Organizational, technological resilience combined defeat the disease that is cybercrime When IT disasters strike, it can become a matter of life and death for healthcare organizations – and criminals know it.…

VanHelsingRaaS, a new ransomware-as-a-service program, infected three victims within two weeks of release, demanding ransoms of $500,000

Experts say that the way you handle things after the criminals break in can make things better or much, much worse Feature Experiencing a ransomware infection or other security breach ranks among the worst days of anyone's life — but it can still get worse.…

Threat actors deploying the Black Basta and CACTUS ransomware families have been found to rely on the same BackConnect (BC) module for maintaining persistent control over infected hosts, a sign that affiliates previously associated with Black Basta may have transitioned to CACTUS

Big-game hunting to the extreme Hellcat, the ransomware crew that infected Schneider Electric and demanded $125,000 in baguettes, has aggressively targeted government, education, energy, and other critical industries since it emerged around mid-2024.…

ENGlobal customers include the Pentagon as well as major oil and gas producers American energy contractor ENGlobal disclosed that access to its IT systems remains limited following a ransomware infection in late November.…

American Associated Pharmacies yet to officially confirm infection American Associated Pharmacies (AAP) is the latest US healthcare organization to have had its data stolen and encrypted by cyber-crooks, it is feared.…