Cyber Bites

The DoppelPaymer Ransomware is the latest family threatening to sell or publish a victim's stolen files if they do not pay a ransom demand. A new tactic being used by ransomware operators that perform network-wide encryption is to steal a victim's files before encrypting any devices. They then threaten to publish or sell this data if the victim does not pay the ransom. Source: Bleeping Computer

The city of Racine, Wis., was hit with a ransomware attack January 31 that knocked most of its non-emergency computer services offline. The Wisconsin-city’s website, email system and online payment collection systems were still down as of February 3 and the city police are unable to processes fee payments or provide copies of police and accident reports, reported the Journal Times and the Racine Police Department’s Facebook page. Source: SC Magazine

Google has reached out to some users to apologise after a "technical issue" saw videos uploaded to another user's archives.  In an email, the search engine giant said the issue affected the Google "download your data" service -- called Google Takeout -- for Google Photos in November last year. "Between November 21, 2019, and November 25, 2019, our records show you requested a Google 'download your data' export, which included Google Photos content," the company...

A 21-year-old man has admitted hacking Nintendo servers and leaking details about unreleased products. Ryan Hernandez, from Palmdale in California, and an associate used a phishing technique to steal the credentials of a Nintendo employee in 2016, according to records. Phishing refers to obtaining sensitive information such as usernames and passwords by disguising yourself as a legitimate or trustworthy user. Source: Sky News

With Flash being discontinued by the end of the year, over 38,000 Flash games have been archived so that they are available for offline play and historical purposes.  In a coordinated announcement by Adobe, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Apple, Adobe stated that by the end of 2020, Flash would no longer be distributed and all major browsers will remove support for it. Source: Bleeping Computer

A new study of stolen passwords reflects the consequences of password overload. The most common type of password is a name, and the most common name password is George, according to a new analysis of compromised credentials found in the Dark Web. Source: Dark Reading

Cybercriminals are exploiting fears over the outbreak of Coronavirus in China, sending out emails with malicious Word attachments purportedly providing updates on preventing infection but in actuality delivering the Emotet trojan. “Patients were reported about the new type of coronavirus-related pneumonia, mainly in Takeshi, China. Patients have been reported in Gifu Prefecture in Japan,Therefore, please =check the attached notice,Thank you for your infection prevention measures,” one email read. Source: SC Magazine

The airline’s hack, compromising the data of more than 1.2 million passengers, including Indian government officials, was first reported by TechCrunch, which learned of the incident through an unnamed security researcher, who referred to his actions as ethical hacking.The individual “brute-forced” into the system by using an easily guessed password, and upon alerting SpiceJet never received a response, prompting the leak to TechCrunch, which says it reviewed the impacted database’s contents and won’t reveal the hacker’s identity...

Three US law firms were hit with ransomware over the weekend and researchers estimate 50% of US organisations were attacked in the past year. The astonishing growth in cybercrime was revealed in the ‘State of the Phish‘ report from cybersecurity firm Proofpoint. The researchers analysed more than 9 million malicious email, spoke with 600 industry leaders and 3500 IT employees to come up with their estimate. They also ran 50 million phishing attack simulation emails....

The Japanese NEC electronics giant was the target of a cyberattack that resulted in unauthorized access to its internal network on Thursday according to information leaked to Japanese newspapers by sources close to the matter. The electronics and information technology giant is a major contractor for Japan's defense industry, engaged in various defense equipment projects with the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JGSDF or Jieitai), including but not limited to 3D radar, broadband multipurpose radio systems and may have leaked...