The more prevalent bitcoin ransomware attacks become, the merrier it gets for insurance firms that offer cyber-liability insurance coverage. The City of Baltimore has become the latest example of this emerging trend. According to The Wall Street Journal, city officials on Wednesday authorized the purchase of cyber-liability insurance coverage worth $20 million. The Maryland city … Read more
South Africa’s state-owned power company, Eskom Holdings, has become the latest victim of the crippling ransomware attacks that have roiled governments around the world. Eskom Holdings Confirms Ransomware Attack According to the Johannesburg city government’s official Twitter account, the division supplying electricity to the country’s economic capital has had its systems encrypted and held hostage, … Read more
By CCN.com: Most of the Baltimore City’s government systems have been locked down since May 7th as a result of the “Robbinhood” ransomware attack. The successful crypto locking has forced the city to go “manual” in most aspects of its daily business and has affected several areas of life. For example, people are unable to … Read more
By CCN.com: In the two years leading up to 2018, a spate of ransomware attacks were analyzed in a report by a team of researchers hailing mostly from leading U.S. universities and Google. Results showed a conservative estimate of total funds stolen to be $16 million, with bitcoin providing a way for malicious actors to … Read more
By CCN.com: China’s sprawling bitcoin mining industry is being targeted by a terrifying new ransomware strain that is threatening the economy of the Sichuan river basin where most mining farms are located, housing a huge percentage of the bitcoin blockchain’s hashpower. First detected in August 2018, the ransomware which is called “hAnt” has been observed … Read more
A town in the Ontario Province of Canada has decided to pay hackers the ransom they are demanding in bitcoin in order to get its computer network working again. Midland, which has a population of over 16,000, had its computer systems breached and infected with ransom malware that encrypted files at the beginning of the … Read more
Unknown hackers have taken aim at the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) of America, demanding bitcoin in order to allow access to crucial files. According to Golfweek, an attack on the computer servers belonging to the Professional Golfers’ Association of America has resulted in the officials of the sports body being denied access to critical files related … Read more
The SamSam ransomware has grossed its creator over $6 million in Bitcoin since late 2015, according to research from cybersecurity firm Sophos. The UK-based cyber-security firm published its findings in what is believed to be the most comprehensive research on the SamSam ransomware. The study is based on the data collected by the researchers from … Read more
Bitcoin has done what regulators haven’t been able to accomplish — getting cybercriminals to lay off of cryptocurrencies as the ransom payment du jour in malware attacks. Bitcoin’s price swings over the past few days — from below $10,000 24 hours ago to more than $11,500 today — have stoked emotions ranging from fear of a … Read more
Recently two global ransomware campaigns made headlines due to the incredible reach they managed to have. Both WannaCry and NotPetya managed to reach hundreds of countries, despite only earning their authors about $140,000 and $10,000 respectively. These numbers are minimal, as according to a report, 34 ransomware families earned extortionists $25 million in only two … Read more