While the first thing that may come to mind is attacks on voter booths and polling data, hackers were expected to hit more vulnerable targets first, such as community-based organizations and systems supporting political campaigns. These networks are rarely designed to withstand the ransomware threats much larger, established political bodies face, and hackers know it. Here, we talk to Doug Matthews, Vice President of Product Management for Veritas, about the conditions impacting data protection during the election period.

The Maze ransomware group announced that they have officially closed down their ransomware operation and will no longer be leaking new companies' data on their site.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers.  

SonicWall Capture Labs threat researchers unveiled third-quarter threat intelligence collected by the company’s more than 1 million global security sensors. Year-to-date findings through September 2020 highlight cyber criminals’ growing use of ransomware, encrypted threats and attacks leveraging non-standard ports, while overall malware volume declined for the third consecutive quarter.

Hall County, Ga. confirmed it experienced a network outage as a result of a ransomware attack. The cyberattack impacted critical systems within the Hall County Government networks, including phone services. While some applications are disabled as the County works to resolve this incident, business continuity measures have been implemented.

Digital Shadows released its quarterly research report focusing on the latest trends in ransomware. Unfortunately, for vulnerable organizations everywhere, Digital Shadows Photon Research team found that ransomware as a market and community on the dark web has expanded since Q2.

Faced with this ransomware onslaught, organizations of all kinds need to rethink how they protect themselves. Part of that rethink means merging the need to provide better privacy protection for their employees with the necessity to protect themselves from the consequences of a ransomware attack exposing both customer and employee data. With federal agencies signaling the possibility of fines for complying with ransomware demands and the liability from exposing personally identifiable data likely to rise significantly, not doing so will soon be too costly to consider.

Proactive cybersecurity programs include comprehensive activities that involve not only the IT and security teams, but also the CEO and boards of directors. Examples of key proactive activities include identifying risk tolerance, defining governance structures, and developing comprehensive security strategies. Throughout this article, we will review key domains where organizations can proactively fortify their cybersecurity measures. COVID-19 has increased threat activity and created unique changes — and increased risk — in IT environments. Now is the time to review some “quick hit” areas where you can bolster your cybersecurity and execute your winning strategy.

Carnival Corporation has disclosed that an Aug. 15 ransomware attack accessed the personal data of guests and employees of Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line and Seabourn. However, Carnival said there is a "a low likelihood of the data being misused."