News of the Cyber World

[kyonides]

JBS Ransomware Brought Along New Illegal Tactic

REvil, aka Sodinokibi, was tagged by the FBI on Wednesday as the group behind the ransomware that forced meat producer JBS USA to temporarily shut down its operations.

In April, REvil (short for Ransomware Evil), demonstrated the use of a tactic called triple extortion, according to a research note from Check Point Research.

At that time, the gang launched an attack on Quanta Computer, a Taiwan-based laptop manufacturer which builds systems for U.S. companies such as Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard. The group went on to attempt to extort Apple directly, claiming to have confidential blueprints of future Apple products – adding yet another layer of ransom demands.

Darkside, the gang behind the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack, has also adopted the new ransomware tactic.

So what's this so called Triple Extortion?

We should already know what a typical ransomware does to you, what about double and triple extortions?

Double extortion goes further by tacking on threats to leak the data. This is meant to increase the pressure on victims to pay the ransom. In some cases, the data leak is a separate ransom, so the victim is being extorted for two payments.

Triple extortion expands the reach to customers, partners and other third parties related to the initial breach in an effort to extort even more money.

Also, the addition of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack to the mix – overwhelming the victim organization with a flood of internet traffic in order to bring down its network – can also be a form of triple extortion.

An early example of Triple Extortion

While the Finnish psychotherapy clinic, with over 40,000 patients, suffered extensive patient data theft and a ransomware attack, smaller sums were also demanded from the patients, who individually received ransom demands. The attackers also threatened to publish their therapist session notes.

WhatsApp hijack scam continues to spread

Scammers are continuing to target WhatsApp users and hijack their accounts, by posing as a friend and asking for SMS security codes.
The scam has existed for years but has continued to catch people out, with victims sharing their stories on social media.
WhatsApp says users should never hand over their security codes to anybody, even if they appear to be a friend.

 Here's how this scam usually begins.

You may be a target of the scam if you receive an SMS text message with a six-digit WhatsApp code that you were not expecting.
In the next step, the scammer sends you a WhatsApp message asking for the six-digit code.

Never ever reveal what that text message ever said. It's common sense, guys!

Epic action: Cinemas open screens for gamers

...renting screens to gamers, allowing people to play their favourite games on screens that would normally be playing Hollywood blockbusters.

So you being a gamer already, are you growing tired of playing games at home?
Is your TV set not good enough?
Who knows if this initiative will ever succeed. We still ignore what would happen to your neck after playing there for a couple of hours.