Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

How Hackers Extorted $1.14m from a US University

posted by martyb on Monday June 29 2020, @11:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the backups-are-your-friend dept.

chromas writes:

How hackers extorted $1.14m from a US university:

A leading medical-research institution working on a cure for Covid-19 has admitted it paid hackers a $1.14m (£910,000) ransom after a covert negotiation witnessed by BBC News.

The Netwalker criminal gang attacked University of California San Francisco (UCSF) on 1 June.

IT staff unplugged computers in a race to stop the malware spreading.

And an anonymous tip-off enabled BBC News to follow the ransom negotiations in a live chat on the dark web.

[...] At first glance, its dark-web homepage looks like a standard customer-service website, with a frequently asked questions (FAQ) tab, an offer of a "free" sample of its software and a live-chat option.

But there is also a countdown timer ticking down to a time when the hackers either double the price of their ransom, or delete the data they have scrambled with malware.

Also at Security Week.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
How Hackers Extorted $1.14m from a US University | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 24 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by zeigerpuppy on Tuesday June 30 2020, @09:17AM (1 child)

    by zeigerpuppy (1298) on Tuesday June 30 2020, @09:17AM (#1014435)

    Can we please avoid misusing the word 'hacker' on this site?
    Hacking is not by its nature criminal and we should not conflate these concepts.
    The mass media does so, because it's a convenient narrative to stoke fear about people who have skills and enjoy using them.

    Hacking is playful, often irreverent and sometimes anti-establishment, but it is by no means criminal.
    The last thing we want is governments to regard exploration of new ideas as synonymous with illegality.

    It matters
    see https://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html [stallman.org]

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Informative=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   4  

  • (Score: 2, Touché) by takyon on Tuesday June 30 2020, @10:56AM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Tuesday June 30 2020, @10:56AM (#1014441) Journal

    Hacking is playful, often irreverent and sometimes anti-establishment, but it is by no means criminal.

    Hackers are to be given swirlies on sight. In prison.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]