Here’s the latest installment of the Hacks, Attacks and Breaches cybersecurity news update.
The Logically team provides top cyber security stories every week to keep you up to date on the latest news headlines on cybersecurity, hacking, computer security, ransomware and other cybersecurity threats.
The City of Wheat Ridge, CO
Exploit: Ransomware
The City of Wheat Ridge, CO: Municipal Government
Risk to Small Business: A Colorado city is putting its IT systems back in order after a successful cyberattack by the BlackCat group. Local media report that following the attack, Wheat Ridge had to shut down its phones and email servers to assess the damage the cybercriminals had done to its network. That, in turn, prompted the city to close down City Hall to the public for more than a week. The cybercriminals demanded $5 million in Monero as the ransom, but the city declined to pay, opting to restore from backups. The city government has been able to return to normal business, and the attack is under investigation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Ransomware attacks against governments and municipalities have been proliferating.
Rockstar Games
Exploit: Hacking
Rockstar Games: Video Game Developer
Risk to Small Business: Rockstar Games confirmed on Monday that a hacker broke into its systems and stole confidential internal data, including footage and source code from the previously unannounced next installment of its popular Grand Theft Auto series. The New York-based company appears to have been breached through a stolen employee Slack account. The hacker that claimed responsibility, “teapotuberhacker”, also says that they’re behind a murky hacking incident at Uber last week. The cybercriminal shared a link to footage and clips purportedly from Grand Theft Auto 6 on a Grand Theft Auto fan forum. The company has confirmed that the game is in development and that the attack occurred.
How it Could Affect Your Business: This is a mess for Rockstar Games with a potentially nasty impact on the marketing and sales of a major new release that wasn’t ready for prime time yet.
New York Racing Association
Exploit: Ransomware
New York Racing Association: Professional Group
Risk to Small Business: The Hive ransomware operation has claimed responsibility for an attack on the New York Racing Association (NYRA). The NYRA operates the three major thoroughbred horse racing tracks in New York, the Aqueduct Racetrack, the Belmont Park (home of the Triple Crown event the Belmont Stakes) and the historic Saratoga Race Course. The attack took place in late August 2022 and breach notices were filed with authorities last week. Press reports say that the hackers have also published a link to freely download a ZIP archive containing all of the files they allegedly stole from NYRA’s systems.
How it Could Affect Your Business: The involvement of health data could make this breach especially expensive and complicated.
American Airlines
Exploit: Business Email Compromise
American Airlines: Airline
Risk to Small Business: American Airlines has filed a breach notice declaring that it has had a data breach that may have impacted personal data for about 1700 customers and employees. Bleeping Computer detailed the incident saying that the American Airlines Cyber Security Response Team found out the attack from the targets of a phishing campaign that was using an employee’s hacked Microsoft 365 account to send phishing messages. Reportedly, the attacker accessed multiple employees’ accounts via phishing and used them to send more phishing emails to additional targets that have not been named.
How it Could Affect Your Business: Business email compromise can take many forms but it is always an expensive nightmare in the end.
