Ransomware Encrypts Network Hospital US

Thousands of workers of an American hospital five days can make use of an important network because some files were encrypted by ransomware. Because of the infection, it was decided to remove the network from the air.

The network is used by more than 4,000 employees at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Florida. "Some documents were infected on the shared drive and left an alarm," a spokeswoman told the Tampa Tribune. "This could affect all employees with computer access, more than 4,000 people." The damage is now mapped. All files on the network, there was a back-up, according to the spokeswoman. How ransomware could spread on the hospital network was not disclosed.

Sleepless Nights After Infection By Ransomware

An Irish businesswoman was strange to watch when she was a seemingly innocent YouTube link on Facebook and clicked her computer suddenly was infected with ransomware. All files, both business and private, were encrypted. To access they had to pay two bitcoins, which corresponds to 450 euros. She saw eventually forced to purchase the bitcoins and to pay the ransom.

The whole process took two days and gave her sleepless nights, she leaves in front of the Belfast Telegraph know. "It was just a link on Facebook, and it seemed to me it on a YouTube video. I thought it was safe and had no doubts." The woman was especially afraid of losing her private pictures. In addition, the computer also contained all kinds of business data of its business.

Paying the bitcoins was no easy task, so let them know. "The person I bought them wanted to validate me. They had to show a photo ID and ID card. They had to know that I was a real person." After she had paid her files were decrypted after half an hour. It took more than a day before it was operational again. The woman describe the whole event as a very stressful situation. From examination of Threat Track among 250 US IT professionals of medium-sized companies shows that 30% are willing to pay in the event of ransomware.

British Secret Service Gives Companies Security Tips

British intelligence service GCHQ has all manner of security tips on how they can protect their systems, networks and information, including things like risk management, secure configurations, network, user, user awareness and prevent malware. A total of ten steps discussed to a safer environment.

The report with recommendations dating from 2013 ( pdf ), but appeared this week in the British media. The Daily Telegraph wrote about the measures in the report, partly because of the advice to turn off unnecessary input / output devices and remove access to removable media. Thus, companies should consider whether their staff access to things like MP3 players and smartphones requires. Would unused functionality should be disabled, such as USB ports, floppy drives and CD and DVD players.

According GCHQ users remain the weakest link in the security chain. "And will always be the primary target of all kinds of attacks. A successful attack simply by a user to leave open an email with malicious content." Organizations therefore be advised to monitor all user activity, as well as network traffic and all IT systems.

USB Flash Drives

In the advisory, a special chapter included drawing attention to removable media such as USB drives. For example, it is recommended to limit the use of removable media. "What use is unavoidable, organizations must limit the types of media that can be used together with the users, systems and the type of data that can be stored or moved to removable media."

Organizations would be wise to regularly scan removable media for malware and the information stored on it, depending on its value and the risks to which it, encrypt. In addition, removable media should be managed and disposed of active, to ensure that previously stored information is no longer accessible.

750,000 Computers Infected With Malware In Belgium

In the first half of 2014 were 750,000 computers infected with malware and Belgium were part of one or several botnets, according to figures from the federal cyber emergency team ( CERT.be ). A year earlier, there were from April to December are 522,000 infected computers.

The figures for the last half of last year due to lack CERT.be in July on a different system switched reports that infected computers. Since then we are working according to a new categorization to get a more detailed security image. These figures are released later in 2015.

Incidents

Not only the number of infections soared, taken on the total number of incidents, there was even talk of a double. This is according CERT.be due to the widened awareness of the organization, and that more incidents occur. In 2013, there were still about 6700 messages inside and there were over 4,000 incidents. Last year it went to a small 11,000 messages and 10,000 incidents.

30% of the incidents concerned scan called "scan incidents" including third systems or databases for possible vulnerabilities.Slightly less than 30% of the incidents were serious worm and virus outbreaks, such as infections on corporate networks.21% were incidents in which vulnerabilities were reported. It goes according CERT.be than, for example, "white hat hackers" who find vulnerabilities in systems, servers and websites and then report.

Remotely next phishing incidents (5.5%) and spam incidents (5%). The actual number of incidents and reports is according CERT.be higher than the currently published figures. "Despite all the reports this remains only a small particle of cyber incidents that happen in Belgium," says the organization.

CIA Goes Next Years Increase Cyber Capabilities

The CIA in the coming years increasing cyber capabilities, so as to be prepared for the future. That CIA Director John Brennan in a " blueprint for the future "to know. According to Brennan must because of the changing threats to national security and the impact of technological developments more attention to the digital domain.

In order to achieve this are set out in the blueprint four themes. First, there must invest in people, both talent and leadership development, says Brenner. The second pillar for the future of the CIA focuses on the digital revolution. "We need our business and operations in the digital domain at the core of our businesses have been," Brennan says. To achieve this, a new leadership position, who will oversee the "cyber integration" within the CIA. Brenner suggests further third point that the intelligence to modernize the process.

"The speed of world developments and technological changes require that the CIA leaders flexible, able to take on the appropriate level, with the right information and in the interest of the organization decisions. The last pillar Brennan argues for better integration of the possibilities available to CIA offers. Thus, special mission centers operational, analytical, technical and digital personnel for key safety issues come together. When not know the blueprint must be performed exactly Brenner left.