Tag Archives: Ransomware

On October 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued an advisory to alert companies that might pay ransomware attackers of the potential sanctions risks for facilitating ransomware payments.  In particular, the alert targeted “financial institutions, cyber insurance firms, and companies involved in digital forensics and incident response….”  While this is an advisory and does not have the force of law,… More

First, the basic facts about the recent ransomware attack:

• US-CERT has received multiple reports of WannaCry ransomware infections in several countries around the world.
• Ransomware is a type of malicious software that infects a computer and restricts users’ access to it until a ransom is paid to unlock it. Individuals and organizations are discouraged from paying the ransom, as this does not guarantee access will be restored.…

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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

In Case You Missed It: US and EU officials signed on to the so-called “Privacy Umbrella” deal last week.  The agreement is designed to protect the personal data of EU citizens when it is transferred to the US for law enforcement purposes — a sort of criminal counterpart to the sturdier-sounding Privacy Shield we discussed here last Thursday.  And, like the Shield, the Umbrella has drawn its share of critics,… More

Unfortunately, health care providers are the perfect mark for theft and extortion because they have huge amounts of sensitive information and maintain such information in computer databases at risk of infiltration. On May 17, Foley Hoag presented a webinar discussing the ongoing crime sprees involving theft of patients’ identities and health information; ransomware involved in these crimes; related data security issues affecting health care providers; and how they implicate law enforcement and the criminal law aspects of HIPAA.… More

Hospitals are increasingly the target of hackers, particularly in the form of “ransomware.”  What follows is a primer on ransomware and how to avoid being a target of it.

What is ransomware? 

Ransomware is a type of malware that limits users’ access to their computer systems. It functions by locking a user’s system and/or encrypting its files.… More