extortion

Pierluigi Paganini June 07, 2016
FBI issued an alert about a rise in extortion email schemes

The FBI has issued a warning that individuals should be on their guard against extortion email scam linked to recent high-profile data breaches. The FBI states that its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has identified this new variety of extortion through the increased instance of reports to the Centre from individuals who have fallen victim […]

Pierluigi Paganini May 16, 2016
Experts also cracked the CryptXXX ransomware 2.0

Security Experts at Kaspersky have updated their decryption tool to adapt to the second version of CryptXXX ransomware in the RannohDecryptor 1.9.1.0. A couple of hours ago I published an interesting post the summarizes the ransomware activities in the last week, and unfortunately, this kind of malware is becoming even more popular in the criminal underground. […]

Pierluigi Paganini May 13, 2016
Talking with Azeem Aleem about the evolution of cyber threats

Azeem Aleem,  Director for the Advanced Cyber Defense Services Practice – EMEA at RSA, shares its vision on the evolution of threats in the next future. The last 14 months have highlighted that attacks domains are expanding. We have seen the trends with OPM data breach, to sensitive PII information leak at Anthem breach and […]

Pierluigi Paganini May 06, 2016
Robin Hood CyptMix ransomware promises to donate fee to charity

This is a novelty in the cyber criminal underground, crooks behind the new born CyptMix ransomware promise to donate the fee to charity. No doubts, a very creative idea to extort money to the victims enticing them to pay for a good cause and telling them to think to have the opportunity to help the children. […]

Pierluigi Paganini April 27, 2016
Smile, you can recover files encrypted by the CryptXXX ransomware

Security experts at Kaspersky have found a way to decrypt files locked by the CryptXXX ransomware by using the RannohDecryptor utility. Good news for the victims of ransomware, the security experts at Kaspersky Lab have successfully cracked the CryptXXX  ransomware. The CryptXXX ransomware was first spotted by experts from Proofpoint in April when a number of compromised websites hosting the Angler exploit kit were […]

Pierluigi Paganini April 21, 2016
A new strain of Teslacrypt implements sophisticated evasion

The authors of the TeslaCrypt ransomware have improved it by implementing new sophisticated evasion techniques and targeting new file types. The authors of the TeslaCrypt ransomware have introduced a couple of significant improvements, the new variant Version 4.1 has been in circulation for about a week. According to the experts at Endgame Inc., VXers have invested […]

Pierluigi Paganini April 04, 2016
Why malware like the Samsam ransomware are so dangerous for hospitals?

The FBI issued a confidential urgent “Flash” message to the businesses and organizations about the Samsam Ransomware, why it is so dangerous? It is emergency, every week security experts launch an alert on a new ransomware, the extortion practice is becoming a profitable business for criminal gangs worldwide. Recently the US and Canada issued a joint warning about the recent […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 13, 2016
A new massive spam campaign is spreading Locky ransomware downloaders

Experts at Trustwave observed a new massive spam campaign that was sending a JavaScript attachment that downloads Locky ransomware. Ransomware continues to be among most insidious threats in this first part of the year, security researcher have recently observed a spike in the number of Locky ransomware infections. The experts from Trustwave security firm highlighted the […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 28, 2016
CTB-Locker for Websites is spreading in the wild

The experts at BleepingComputer reported a new strain of CTB-Locker for Websites, a new ransomware that mainly targets WordPress sites. Ransomware continues to threaten users worldwide, today we discussed German Hospitals paralyzed by the malware.  TeslaCrypt, Cryptowall and Locky are the names of the most popular ransomware that already infected millions machines worldwide. The experts at BleepingComputer reported a new […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 27, 2016
Ransomware attacks paralyzed at least two German hospitals

New ransomware infections hit Germany hospitals, at least two structures were infected by the dreaded malware. New ransomware infections hit hospitals in Germany, at least two of them were infected by the dreaded malware. According to local reports, the systems at two German hospitals were infected by a ransomware, in a similar way occurred recently at the US Hollywood […]