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.
United States – FinalSite
Exploit: Ransomware
FinalSite: Education Technology Provider
Risk to Business: School website services provider FinalSite has suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted access to websites for thousands of schools worldwide. FinalSite provides solutions for over 8,000 K – 12 schools and universities in 115 countries. School districts that hosted their websites with FinalSite found that they were no longer reachable or were displaying errors. Bleeping Computer reports that in addition to the website outages the attack prevented schools from sending closure notifications due to weather or COVID-19. FinalSite says that approximately 5,000 school websites went offline as a result of the ransomware attack and no data was stolen. An investigation is ongoing.
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Ransomware risk is rising for organizations in every sector, especially companies that provide important services for other businesses.
United Kingdom – Qubit Finance
Exploit: Hacking
Quibit Finance: De Fi Platform
Risk to Small Business: A threat actor has stolen approximately $80 million from Qubit Finance after exploiting a flaw in the De Fi platform. Qubit said the attacker was able to steal 206,809 Binance coins (BNB) from its wallet on January 27, 2022. The hacker used a vulnerability in one of its Ethereum blockchain contracts to do the deed. The company has issued a public plea for the threat actor to return the stolen funds, asking them to get in contact with its team to “disclose the bug and receive a bounty reward”. This is sometimes used as a means of circumventing legal trouble for paying a ransom.
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: De Fi has been buried under an avalanche of cybercrime lately and there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight.
Ukraine – Viasat
Exploit: Nation State Cyberattack
Viasat: Internet Service Provider
Risk to Small Business: An estimated 10 thousand people found themselves without internet access after a cyberattack took down service to fixed broadband customers in Ukraine and elsewhere on its European KA-SAT network. The attack, starting about the same time as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is suspected to be the work of Russia-aligned nation-state threat actors. No data was accessed or stolen in the incident, which is still under investigation.
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Nation-state cybercriminals are highly likely to strategically attack Utilities and Infrastructure targets during times of trouble.
Costa Rica – The Government of Costa Rica
Exploit: Ransomware
The Government of Costa Rica: National Government
Risk to Small Business: The Conti group has claimed responsibility for a ransomware attack on the federal government of Costa Rica that has caused trouble in several government agencies for more than a week. Government ministries impacted include Finance, experiencing impacts in customs and tax collection, Labor and the social security agency’s human resources system. Conti’s extortion site claims that the group has published 50% of the stolen data including more than 850 gigabytes of material from the Finance Ministry and other institutions’ databases. Reports say that the group has demanded a $10 million ransom, which the Costa Rican government has stated it will not pay.
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Ransomware is a major threat to governments and cybercriminals have not been shy about using it.
