Security News
The Doppelpaymer ransomware gang were behind the cyber-attack on a German hospital that led to one patient's death, according to local sources. The Aachener Zeitung newspaper carried a report from the German Press Association that Doppelpaymer's eponymous ransomware had been introduced to the University Hospital Düsseldorf's network through a vulnerable Citrix product.
German authorities probing a cyber attack on a hospital's IT system that led to a fatal delay in treatment for a critically ill woman believe the software used can be traced back to Russian hackers. In an update to lawmakers published on Tuesday, prosecutors wrote that hackers used malware known as "Doppelpaymer" to disable computers at Duesseldorf University Hospital on September 10, aiming to encrypt data and then demand payment to unlock it again.
German authorities last week disclosed that a ransomware attack on the University Hospital of Düsseldorf caused a failure of IT systems, resulting in the death of a woman who had to be sent to another hospital that was 20 miles away. The attack, which exploited a Citrix ADC CVE-2019-19781 vulnerability to cripple the hospital systems on September 10, is said to have been "Misdirected" in that it was originally intended for Heinrich Heine University, according to an extortion note left by the perpetrators.
German authorities said Thursday that what appears to have been a misdirected hacker attack caused the failure of IT systems at a major hospital in Duesseldorf, and a woman who needed urgent admission died after she had to be taken to another city for treatment. As a consequence, systems gradually crashed and the hospital wasn't able to access data; emergency patients were taken elsewhere and operations postponed.
German authorities have reportedly seized a server hosting the massive BlueLeaks data dump, which was released earlier in June and exposed thousands of sensitive police department and law enforcement files. "We have received official confirmation that #DDoSecrets' primary public download server was seized by German authorities," said Emma Best, founder of DDoSecrets, in a Tuesday Twitter post.
A top German court on Tuesday ordered Facebook to stop merging data collected through its Whatsapp and Instagram subsidiaries or other websites unless users explicitly agree, in a legal victory for competition authorities. Germany's Federal Cartel Office had told Facebook to rein in the data collecting in a landmark decision in 2019, but the social media giant appealed the order.
Researchers are warning of an ongoing phishing attack that's targeting the credentials of more than 100 high-profile executives at a German multinational corporation that's tasked with procuring coronavirus medical gear for Germany. The company, left unnamed by researchers, is part of a task force created March 30 by the German government and the private sector to procure personal protective equipment for healthcare workers on the front lines of COVID-19, such as face masks and medical equipment.
One of the several multinational corporations enlisted by the German government to help it obtain personal protective equipment for the care of COVID-19 patients has been targeted in an ongoing phishing campaign, IBM reported on Monday. According to IBM, a threat actor has targeted more than 100 high-ranking people within this company, which is part of Germany's Task Force Personal Protective Equipment, whose members leverage their contact networks, particularly in China, to secure PPE. The attackers have targeted executives within the organization, as well as its supply chain partners, and IBM believes the same group likely also targeted other members of the task force.
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday angrily rejected Germany's allegations over Russian intelligence involvement in a cyberattack against the German parliament. The ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the claim concerning a 2015 hacking attack on the German parliament was "Absurd" and "Unfounded."
German prosecutors said Tuesday they had brought charges against a 22-year-old hacker who released personal data of dozens of politicians, journalists and other public figures online, embarrassing national authorities. The German man - arrested in January last year - is accused of multiple computer crimes, as well as making false reports to the police and attempted blackmail.