FBI Says Conti Ransomware Gang Has Hit 16 US Health and Emergency Networks (reuters.com) 30
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said that the same group of online extortionists blamed for striking the Irish health system last week have also hit at least 16 U.S. medical and first response networks in the past year. From a report: In an alert made public Thursday by the American Hospital Association, the FBI said the cybercriminals using the malicious software dubbed 'Conti' have targeted law enforcement, emergency medical services, dispatch centers, and municipalities. The alert did not name the victims or go into detail about the nature or severity of the breaches, saying only that they were among more than 400 organizations worldwide targeted by "Conti actors."
There have been many similar stories recently ... (Score:3)
it is that there have been many more attacks or that more stories are hitting the headlines ?
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Likely both. The medical facilities are likely to have HIPAA's reporting requirements apply (Breach Notification Rules for Ransomware [varonis.com]). From a PR point of view, the lessons folks keep re-learning is that you want to get in front of the reporting to control the narrative. Nothing like having the press come after you when you get caught hiding the truth.
And the attacks themselves are more common. These teams now have lots of experience running these attacks and have become quite good at it. They've also
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Sounds like free publicity to me. "Hey, it's okay to pay the ransom! Everyone's doing it."
I'd like to see the Congress take some serious action to stop the cyber-criminals. Unfortunately, the cyber-criminals scare them too much and they won't lift a finger.
Actually, it might be worse than that. Maybe the #Trumplican (or #GQP) gang is working with the cyber-criminals? But that reminds me of my venti-vent Tweet of the day:
Moron, the criminals are in Russia or somewhere friendly to Russia. What do you think the US congress is going to be able to do about that?
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Maybe they could ask Vladimir to take care of it? I'm sure he'll get right on it if he's asked nicely.
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That, unfortunately, is a two way street. If we want it to work we will have to comply with THEIR requests and handover a number of tax evasion and fraudster criminals masquerading as "darling democrats".
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NAK
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Sounds like free publicity to me. "Hey, it's okay to pay the ransom! Everyone's doing it."
I'd like to see the Congress take some serious action to stop the cyber-criminals. Unfortunately, the cyber-criminals scare them too much and they won't lift a finger.
Actually, it might be worse than that. Maybe the #Trumplican (or #GQP) gang is working with the cyber-criminals? But that reminds me of my venti-vent Tweet of the day:
So @Sen_JoeManchin thinks it's "so disheartening" that the #Trumplicans will filibuster?
Reminds me of the old joke about the two buzzards talking: "Patience? Hell. I want to kill something!"
Time to #KillTheFilibuster.
Why not cloture by Senators with 55% of the voters?
Really? That needs to be quoted against the censor trolls? Oh well. First it let's me know when I'm on the right track. Enemy of defenseless idiots with only mod points to spare, so to speak. But second, I'm glad to help them waste their 'precious' mod points. Maybe they even wind up sacrificing a sock puppet or two to their "cause"?
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it is that there have been many more attacks or that more stories are hitting the headlines ?
There has been a change in management. The DHS/FBI can now talk publicly about things that have been happening. Previous management did not want anything made public that could make him look "weak" or incompetent.
Note: that is not to say that these things happening were the fault of the administration, just that they were too concerned with appearances to publicly acknowledge the existence of the problem.
John Candy said it well (Score:1)
Why would this outfit change their successful motus operendi?
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They'll have time to reevaluate their choices when the money stops rolling in. But that isn't going to happen any time soon.
Are they asking for payment in cash? (Score:3, Insightful)
Because crypto currencies do nothing to enable criminal activity right, cash is just as bad right?
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which is why an organized criminal would hire lesser criminals to be in physical places and move physical goods and money.
Technical platform? (Score:5, Interesting)
Is there any public statistics by operating system / operating system vendor / entry application / entry application vendor about the successfully attacked networks?
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Is there any public statistics by operating system / operating system vendor / entry application / entry application vendor about the successfully attacked networks?
Conti is ransomware that has been observed since 2020. All versions of Microsoft Windows are known to be affected.
Conti (ransomware) [wikipedia.org]
Well yeah it's condoned now. (Score:1)
It's acceptable to pay ransoms now, so attacks like this are simply a part of operating costs going forward.
On the fence (Score:1)
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Disclaimer - don't know the vector for the ransomware... but the health industry is to a point at the mercy of vendors being locked into a particular patched level of O/S and application who are at the mercy of the time and cost involved with recertifying their product with new releases. The patients scream at high bills so the hospitals don't want to pay high software or device costs initially or high maintenance costs and the bean counters further up the food chain don't see any merit in certifying for ea
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It's kinda hard to feel sorry for a health system that is run entirely by for-profit companies that prey on the poor [cuny.edu] (that is, really only the rich can pay for), but at the same time it's unfortunate it affects people that need those medical services.
The flaw in your reasoning is that ransoms are not going to the poor. They are yet another cost being taken from the poor.
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Should be illegal to pay the ransom... (Score:3)
And should be an automatic firing of the CTO and CEO
Re: Should be illegal to pay the ransom... (Score:1)
Want to fix this fast? (Score:2)
Declare medical facilities to be national security installations. When ransomware strikes, et the droning begin.
Not surprising. (Score:2)