Tag Archives: FBI

If you aren’t following the ransomware attack on Kaseya’s VSA product and approximately 800-1500 of its users, you should be.  Like many cyberattacks, this one came on the verge of a holiday weekend.  As the company itself notes, “Kaseya’s VSA product has unfortunately been the victim of a sophisticated cyberattack.   Due to our teams’ fast response, we believe that this has been localized to a very small number of on-premises customers only. … More

On October 28, 2020, a joint cybersecurity advisory was coauthored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This advisory describes the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by cybercriminals against targets in the healthcare and public health sectors to infect their systems with Ryuk ransomware for financial gain.

CISA,… More

If you are among the many people turning to video-teleconferencing (VTC) to stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic, you need to protect yourself from “Zoom-bombing” – the entrance of uninvited individuals into your VTC.  The FBI has received multiple reports of conferences being disrupted by offensive images and/or threatening language.

The FBI recommends the following steps to mitigate VTC hijacking threats:

• Do not make meetings or classrooms public:
  • In Zoom,…

More

The FBI recently released an article discussing the spate of ransomware attacks on a variety of different entities, including hospitals. In the article, the FBI warned that ransomware attacks and the cybercriminals carrying them out are growing increasingly sophisticated.  The FBI opposes paying a ransom when hit by a ransomware attack, saying that doing do incentivizes more ransomware attacks, can inadvertently fund other illegal activity, and does not always result in the restoration of access. … More

As the Wall Street Journal noted yesterday, banks are being deluged with phishing attacks.  These attacks are especially fierce around the holiday season, when more personnel are absent and normal procedures are ignored or bypassed.  The FBI and other law enforcement agencies are focused on these attacks, but it only takes one employee to “believe” a phishing email for the trouble to start.… More

The highly publicized hacking of the iCloud accounts of dozens of celebrities was disclosed over Labor Day weekend and has raised larger, more serious concerns regarding the security of personal and corporate data held in the cloud.

Several explanations for how the hack was achieved have been offered, with some initial pointing the finger at potential flaws in Apple’s security system.… More

Increasingly, alliances are viewed as an important way to improve data security.  The Washington Post reports that the National Security Agency is now working with Internet service providers to thwart cyberattacks against defense firms by foreign adversaries.  We have previously noted two other initiatives:   the Advanced Cyber Security Center (to which Foley Hoag serves as legal counsel).and InfraGuard, a Federal Bureau of Investigation program. … More

Wondering what your company might be able to do at the local level to help fight cybercrime? There are a growing number of public-private collaborations that are trying to get ahead of the bad guys.

One is the Advanced Cyber Security Center (to which Foley Hoag serves as legal counsel).  The ACSC is a collaborative, cross-sector research facility working to address critical and sophisticated cyber security challenges.… More

In a recent decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Martin Boroiang v. Robert S. Mueller, III, et al., No. 09-1630, the First Circuit rejected a challenge to the requirement that a blood sample be given by a federal offender for purposes of creating a DNA profile and entering it into a centralized government database.

The DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 (“DNA Act”) applies to individuals who have been convicted of a “qualifying federal offense”… More

22-year old U.S. Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning is reportedly in custody in Kuwait after claiming that he sent 260,000 classified documents to the WikiLeaks website. According to WIRED, Manning, who served at Forward Operating Base Hammer near Baghdad in Iraq, made the admission after reaching out to former hacker Adrian Lamo in a series of Internet chats beginning on May 21st.  Manning ominously began the conversation with the following:

(1:41:12 PM) Bradley Manning: hi
(1:44:04 PM) Manning: how are you?… More