Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

A China-linked espionage group hid inside North American medical, academic, and military research networks for more than a year, quietly stealing sensitive research and defense email

Americans Extorted at Least 5 Firms, Earning $1 Million From a Medical Device MakerTwo American cybersecurity professionals who moonlighted as BlackCat ransomware gang affiliates pleaded guilty to using the crypto-locking malware to extort at least five victims in the United States, including a medical device maker that paid a cryptocurrency ransom worth over $1 million.

DOJ: Suspects Hit 5 Firms, Including 3 in Healthcare, Netted $1.3M in Ransom MoneyThree former employees of two cybersecurity firms stand accused of using BlackCat ransomware in a conspiracy to extort five U.S. companies, including three in the healthcare sector. One of the victim companies paid nearly $1.3 million to the attackers, U.S. federal prosecutors said.

U.S. prosecutors last week levied criminal hacking charges against 19-year-old U.K. national Thalha Jubair for allegedly being a core member of Scattered Spider, a prolific cybercrime group blamed for extorting at least $115 million in ransom payments from victims. The charges came as Jubair and an alleged co-conspirator appeared in a London court to face accusations of hacking into and extorting several large U.K. retailers, the London transit system, and healthcare providers in the United States.

UK and US Charge Suspects With Hitting Transport for London, Healthcare, OthersTwo English teenagers have been charged with disrupting London's transport network as part of a Scattered Spider cyberattack. One of the suspects has also been accused by the U.S. of helping to attack 120 other victims, generating $115 million in ransom payments.

Farmers' HIPAA Breach Affects 1.1 Million; Aflac Is Still Counting VictimsTwo major U.S.-based insurers - Farmers Insurance and Aflac Inc. - have each reported to regulators data breaches involving two recent separate cyberattacks. The breaches follow a spring and summer spree of data exfiltration incidents that hit multiple large players in the insurance sector.

Lawmakers Demand Answers From UHG Amid New Breach and Growing FalloutWhen you've been the victim of the largest health data breach in U.S. history, and you've been under intense public and regulatory scrutiny for months, the last thing you want to do is to report another major breach less than a year after the last one. But that just happened to UnitedHealth Group.

PLUS: OpenAI bumps bug bounties bigtime; INTERPOL arrests 300 alleged cyber-scammers; And more! Infosec in brief Oracle Health appears to have fallen victim to an info stealing attack that has led to patient data stored by American hospitals being plundered.…

Cost of Attack Has Reached $3.1 Billion for Parent Company UnitedHealth GroupOne of the biggest data breaches of 2024 is even worse than previously reported, as the tally of Change Healthcare breach victims has now reached 190 million individuals, and costs tied to the attack $3.1 billion, according to its owner, U.S. health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group.

Daniel Hulea Orchestrated Attacks Targeting Businesses During the COVID-19 PandemicA U.S. federal court sentenced a Romanian man to 20 years in a U.S. prison for his role in Netwalker ransomware attacks including against healthcare and education sectors during the novel coronavirus pandemic, extorting millions of dollars from victims worldwide.

Also: Interpol Says 'Pig Butchering' Shames Victims, A Data Leak Scandal in MexicoThis week, U.S. asks Israel to extradite an alleged LockBit coder, don't say "pig butchering," and an Apache Struts flaw. A hunt for alleged data thieves in Mexico, Europe probes TikTok and Netfilix fined 4.75 million. A ransomware attack against Texas medical centers and a credit union breach.

Gang Hits Victims with 'Sophisticated' Exfiltration, Encryption Extortion AttacksHealth sector entities have yet another ransomware group to worry about, warn U.S. federal authorities. Trinity, a relatively new sophisticated threat actor, is hitting a variety of critical industries, including healthcare, said the Department of Health and Human Services in an advisory.

Threat actors linked to the RansomHub ransomware group encrypted and exfiltrated data from at least 210 victims since its inception in February 2024, the U.S. government said

An Iran-based hacking group known as Pioneer Kitten is breaching defense, education, finance, and healthcare organizations across the United States and working with affiliates of several ransomware operations to extort the victims. [...]

Group Claims a NY Surgical Center and a Nevada Medical Center Among Recent VictimsU.S. authorities are warning healthcare sector entities of incidents involving Everest, a Russian-speaking ransomware group and initial access broker, which claims to have stolen sensitive patient information in recent attacks, including on two medical care providers in New York and Nevada.

The U.S. government is warning about the resurgence of BlackCat (aka ALPHV) ransomware attacks targeting the healthcare sector as recently as this month

Recent Victims Include Pennsylvania Emergency Dispatch SystemU.S. federal authorities are again warning the healthcare sector about threats from the Akira ransomware group. The latest alert comes on the heels of several recent attacks by the gang, including one last month on Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which affected an IT system used by emergency responders.

Also: A Widespread Linux Bootloader VulnerabilityThis week, the U.S. banned AI robocalls, researchers discovered a Linux bootloader flaw, France investigated health sector hackings, the feds offered money for Hive information, Verizon disclosed an insider breach, Germany opened a cybersecurity center, and cyberattack victims reported high costs.

Rest of the crew still at large A former Trickbot developer has been sent down for five years and four months for his role in infecting American hospitals and businesses with ransomware and other malware, costing victims tens of millions of dollars in losses.…

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) disclosed today that it infiltrated the world's second most prolific ransomware gang, a Russia-based criminal group known as ALPHV and BlackCat. The FBI said it seized the gang's darknet website, and released a decryption tool that hundreds of victim companies can use to recover systems. Meanwhile, BlackCat responded by briefly "unseizing" its darknet site with a message promising 90 percent commissions for affiliates who continue to work with the crime group, and open season on everything from hospitals to nuclear power plants.