Los Angeles Housing Authority Rocked by Ransomware Group

Backup Strategies, Cactus, cyberattack, data harvest, Employee Training, HACLA, LockBit, Ophtek, Ransomware, software updates, , , , , , , , ,
26
Nov 2024

Threat actors are determined to harvest as much sensitive data as possible, and the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) know all about this.

It’s been revealed that HACLA has recently been attacked by the Cactus ransomware gang. First emerging in early 2023, the Cactus group has gained a reputation for stealing confidential data. Around 260 organizations have been affected by Cactus’ activities in the last year and a half, with no sign of them slowing up. HACLA, unfortunately, has previous form for data breaches, with the LockBit ransomware group gaining access to their IT systems for nearly a full year in 2022.

To help you bolster your organization’s defenses, we’re going to explore the Cactus attack in closer detail.

Cactus Get Prickly with HACLA

With 32,000 public housing units falling under its administration, HACLA is a prime target for any threat actors hungry for personal data. Accordingly, Cactus have struck at the heart of HACLA to harvest significant amounts of data.

Understandably, in order to protect their defenses, HACLA have revealed very little about the attack. They acknowledge that, after becoming aware of suspicious activity, IT professionals were contacted to investigate a possible cyberattack. HACLA’s systems remain operational as of this writing, but they haven’t confirmed exactly what happened or whether any data was stolen.

Cactus, on the other hand, has been more forthcoming with details. Announcing that they’ve managed to steal 891 GB of files from HACLA’s network, Cactus has clearly carried out an audacious attack. The data stolen, as Cactus claims, is highly sensitive and includes personal client details, financial documents, database backups, and correspondence. To demonstrate that they’re not just showboating, Cactus has published screenshots of some of this stolen data. Alongside this, Cactus has also followed up their claims by uploading an archive containing some of the stolen data.

Shielding Your Business from Breach Risks

While it’s currently unclear whether HACLA’s systems or data has been encrypted by ransomware, it’s a very real possibility. Regardless of whether encryption has taken place, the 891 GB of stolen data is a seriously worrying amount of personal data to leak. Therefore, you need to be on your guard against such attacks by practicing the following:

  • Data Backup Strategy: To minimize the impact of ransomware, it’s always a good idea to carry out regular, automated backups of your data. As well as keeping these backups close to hand on site, it’s crucial that you also keep copies stored on secure, off-site locations such as in the cloud. The 3-2-1 backup method is an excellent strategy to employ in order to keep your data secure and retrievable.
  • Regular Software Updates: Many data breaches are the result of vulnerabilities being exploited within software. These vulnerabilities allow threat actors to gain a foothold with IT infrastructures and start implementing malware infections or stealing data. Consequently, to plug all of these security holes, you should automate all software updates to optimize the strength of your defenses.
  • Employee Training: Regular training of your employees, both at the induction stage and through refresher courses, provides your organization with its strongest form of defense. It just takes one wrong click by an employee to expose your entire network, so it’s vital that you can sharpen their cybersecurity skills to secure your IT infrastructure.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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Healthcare Industry Rocked by Major Hack

ALPHV, auto updates, Backup Strategies, BlackCat, Hackers, identify phishing, Ophtek, Ransomware, , , , , , ,
23
Apr 2024

Healthcare data is some of the most sensitive data in existence, but a major hack has just affected up to 15 billion records.

Change Healthcare, who provide revenue and payment services for healthcare providers and patients, has announced that its systems have been compromised by threat actors. With Change Healthcare processing around 15 billion transactions a year, this represents a major attack. And the impact has already been felt. Healthcare providers have been struggling to charge for their services, while patients have been struggling to get their prescriptions issued. It’s a nightmare scenario for all involved and underlines the effect malware can have.

How Did Change Healthcare Get Hacked?

The precise details of how Change Healthcare was hacked has not, as yet, been revealed. However, we do know it was carried out by a ransomware group which goes by the names of ALPHV or BlackCat. Naturally, their trademark attack style involves ransomware, and it’s most likely that this was utilized in the Change Healthcare attack. With ransomware typically encrypting data, this is highly damaging for any service handling healthcare data. By encrypting patient records, the hackers would be severing a crucial flow of information.

The attack came on the 21st February 2024, and Change Healthcare took down their systems on the same day. A week later, BlackCat announced they had been behind the attack. Details of a $22 million payment to the ransomware groups have also been revealed, although Change Healthcare are yet to confirm this was made by themselves. Prescription claim submissions and payment systems have recently been reinstated by Change Healthcare, but full access to their systems is unlikely to be restored until mid-March.

Who is BlackCat?

BlackCat has been active online since 2021 and, since then, has launched a series of audacious attacks. The group was linked to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in 2021, and it also took responsibility for the MGM Casino attack in 2023. Headlines such as these didn’t go unnoticed, and in December 2023, the US Department of Justice set about disrupting BlackCat’s activities. Clearly, though, the resulting Change Healthcare attack has demonstrated how BlackCat was unharmed by this resistance.

Staying Safe from Ransomware

The threat of ransomware is well known, but the Change Healthcare attack is a big deal and acts as an important reminder to stay vigilant. With this in mind, we’re going to show you the best ways to stay safe from ransomware:

  • Regular software updates: ransomware often takes control of IT infrastructures due to software vulnerabilities. Accordingly, you need to make sure automatic updates are activated on your operating system. This ensures your software is updated as soon as an update is available, preventing you from running a network with open doors for threat actors.
  • Employee training: your employees are one of your most powerful forms of defense against ransomware threats. Therefore, regular training on cybersecurity threats such as identifying phishing emails, malicious websites, and understanding how to report cybersecurity incidents is vital. With this in place, you can rest assured your network is as secure as possible.
  • Regular, isolated backups: you need to regularly back up critical data and ensure that backups are stored in a secure, isolated location. Automated backup solutions can help ensure consistency and reliability in the event of your data being encrypted by ransomware.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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Data Breach at Norton Healthcare After Ransomware Attack 

ALPHV, Data Backup, Data Breach, Employee Training, Norton Healthcare, partition hard drives, Ransomware, , , , , ,
30
Jan 2024

Healthcare data is some of the most sensitive and confidential data to exist in IT systems, so the ransomware attack at Norton Healthcare is a big deal. 

Based in Kentucky, Norton Healthcare is a provider who delivers health services to adults and children in over 40 clinics. Their objective, as with all healthcare providers, is to improve the lives of their patients. However, a recent data breach has done little to inspire a sense of wellness in their patients. The breach, which occurred in May this year but is only just being reported, was part of a ransomware attack. Norton Healthcare’s network was breached for two days, but there appeared to be no evidence that their medical record system had been accessed. 

Nonetheless, healthcare data should always be secure, and breaches in local networks represent a major cause for concern. 

The Norton Healthcare Attack 

The exact nature of the attack has, at present, not been released. But we do know what the impact of the breach was. After discovering that an attack was taking place, Norton was forced into turning its network off, the last thing a healthcare provider wants to do. As the attack was unfolding, Norton received, in a novel twist, a faxed ransom note featuring threats and demands. Later that month, a ransomware group known as ALPHV claimed responsibility for the attack. 

ALPHV released a statement to the dark web which claimed that they had managed to compromise 4.7TB worth of data from Norton Healthcare’s servers. As proof, ALPHV uploaded numerous files – containing patients’ bank statements and Social Security numbers – to backup their claims. Norton’s official line is that only some network storage devices were breached, and these only contained identifying information rather than any medical data. 

How Can Healthcare Providers Protect Themselves?

With more and more healthcare providers coming under attack from threat actors, it’s important that they understand how to minimize their risk. In fact, these lessons are valuable for any business running an IT network, so it’s time to find out how. So, to stay safe from ransomware attacks, make sure you follow this best guidance: 

  • Regular backups: it’s vital that you perform regular backups of your data to ensure, if it becomes encrypted by ransomware, you still have access to it. Ideally, these backups should be completed daily at the very least, and they should always be saved to secure locations. It’s important to keep copies of your backups offline as well, this will allow you to access your data even if you need to take your network down. 
     
  • Partition your hard drives: to minimize the impact of a breach, it’s a good idea to partition you hard drives and data storage. By separating these from your main network, and from each other, you’re limiting the files and data that malware can access. This minimizes the risk of data loss and allows you to keep important systems online. 
     
  • Employee training: educating your staff about the dangers of social engineering and phishing emails is one of the most important steps you can take. Ransomware, such as the strain encountered by Norton Healthcare, is often spread through emails and your employees need to be able to identify these threats before clicking on them. 

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals. 

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Safeguarding Your Business Against Social Engineering 

complex passwords, malware, multi factor authentication, Ophtek, Phishing Email, Ransomware, social engineering, vulnerability, , , , , , ,
05
Dec 2023

One of the biggest threats to your organization’s IT comes in the form of social engineering attacks. Therefore, you need to keep your business protected. 

In the digital age, there are many threats to your IT infrastructure. These can include ransomware, software vulnerabilities and malware. However, perhaps the most dangerous, and easiest to launch, attack involves social engineering. This attack relies on exploiting human psychology to gain a foothold within a targeted network. In many ways, it’s an age-old deception strategy from the physical world, but simply transferred over to the digital world. This article looks deep into the world of social engineering and should provide you with a better understanding of how to safeguard your business. 

What is Social Engineering? 

The main objective of social engineering, for a threat actor, is to convince individuals that divulging sensitive information or performing network actions is the right thing to do. Often, this strategy relies on phishing emails. These are emails which are sent to targets and claim to have been sent from someone they know e.g. a work colleague or a supplier. However, what the threat actor is trying to do here is either extract confidential information – such as login credentials – or encourage the target to click a malicious link. 

Get Your Team to Recognize Social Engineering 

Social engineering attacks will always be targeted at your employees, so this means that you need to invest in educating your employees. While an IT induction represents a good opportunity to warn them of the telltale signs of social engineering, the sheer range of social engineering strategies requires something more intensive. Accordingly, regular training courses which are followed up with refresher courses are highly recommended. Even better, sending randomised ‘spoof’ phishing emails internally can indicate which employees require tailored training. 

Strengthen Your Authentication Processes 

If you want to add an extra layer of defense to your IT infrastructure, strengthening your authentication processes is an excellent way of achieving this. Not only will this thwart social engineering campaigns, but it will also protect you against almost all other security threats. Therefore, make sure you focus on the following: 

  • Integrate password rules which require your employees to create complex passwords e.g. using a mixture of case types, numbers and symbols. 
  • Bring in multi-factor authentication to help protect your employees’ existing login credentials and place a further obstacle in the way of unauthorized access. 
  • Put a time limit on passwords and ensure that they have to be updated within a set time e.g. every two months. 

Secure Your Communication Channels 

Applications such as Microsoft Outlook and Teams have revolutionized the way that businesses communicate, but they also represent a rich source of data. With this in mind, you need to secure these communication channels against the threat of social engineering. Encrypting data flowing in and out of these applications is paramount to protect the type of data that social engineering is hungry for. So, use VPN’s where possible and make sure your employees avoid using their devices on public Wi-Fi. 

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals. 

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Where is Cybersecurity Heading in 2023?

Artificial Intelligence, cryptojacking, cybersecurity, malware, Ophtek, Phishing, Ransomware, remote workers, , , , , , ,
08
Aug 2023

We’re already halfway through 2023 and threat actors are showing no signs of slowing up, but just where is cybersecurity heading?

It may feel as though you’re waging a never-ending battle against hackers and, well, that’s exactly what you’re doing. However, the strategies and techniques of threat actors has changed significantly in the last two decades. Back in 2003, for example, ransomware was less prevalent, but now it’s a major player in terms of cyber-attacks. Therefore, it’s always good to keep one step ahead of the hackers and understand where they are likely to go next.

What Will Future Cyber Attacks Look Like?

The future of cybersecurity will be concerned with maintaining defenses against existing threats and tackling new, innovative strategies launched by threat actors. These attacks are expected to be based in the following categories:

Artificial Intelligence: the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) has been huge in the last couple of years, just look at the interest generated by ChatGPT in 2023. However, the power to cause damage with AI is causing just as many headlines. You can, for example, ask AI systems to help generate code to build computer programs. The exact same code which is used to build malware. This means that designing and executing malware could be easier than ever before, and lead to a surge in new attacks.

Remote working: since the pandemic, more and more employees have been working remotely. While this is convenient, and has been shown to enhance productivity, it also increases the risk of falling victim to malware. Although many remote workers connect to their employers through a VPN, they are often accessing this through devices which aren’t secure. Also, as they will not have colleagues directly around them to offer advice, employees will be more vulnerable to, for example, clicking a malicious link.

Phishing: threat actors have been launching phishing attacks for nearly 20 years, and this means that many PC users can easily spot a phishing email. But this doesn’t mean we’re safe. Instead, it’s likely that future attacks will be more sophisticated to be successful. Taking advantage of AI and machine learning, threat actors will be able to craft phishing emails which are both engaging and convincing. This will allow their attacks to be more successful and harvest more stolen data.

Cryptojacking: despite several significant attacks, cryptojacking is yet to hit the mainstream PC user in the same way that ransomware has. Nonetheless, cryptojacking attacks are on the rise. Accordingly, PC users are likely to become more familiar with them in the next few years. Cryptojacking, as the name suggests, involves hijacking a PC and using its computing resources to mine cryptocurrencies. Due to the huge amount of processing power required to mine cryptocurrency, these attacks target entire networks and can grind them to a halt.

Final Thoughts

These four attack strategies may not be troubling you every day, but they could soon become regular headaches. That’s why you need to adopt a proactive approach to cybersecurity. Make sure that you

keep updated on the latest threats, regularly review your security measures, and ensure that your staff are fully trained in cybersecurity best practices.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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