Security News
The Conti ransomware gang has released a free decryptor for Ireland's health service, the HSE, but warns that they will still sell or release the stolen data. Today, the ransomware gang posted a link to a free decryptor in their negotiation chat page for the HSE that can be used use to recover encrypted files for free.
The Conti ransomware gang failed to encrypt the systems of Ireland's Department of Health despite breaching its network and dropping Cobalt Strike beacons to deploy their malware across the network. The next day, at 07:00 AM, a human-operated Conti ransomware attack disabled some of HSE's devices, forcing the health service to shut down its entire IT infrastructure to limit the impact.
Ireland's Health Service Executive was hit by a ransomware attack late last week, forcing the organization to shut down its IT system on Friday. By Sunday it was learned that the Department of Health had also been attacked by what was assumed to be the same gang.
The murky world of ransomware criminals is all aflutter after it was revealed that Ireland's health services were hit by a second attack hot on the heels of one that took out its hospitals, while ransomware insurance refusenik Axa was itself hit with ransomware after its French branch vowed to stop buying off criminals on behalf of its customers. French-headquartered insurance company Axa suffered ransomware attacks against four of its subsidiaries in east Asia, according to the Financial Times.
Ireland's High Court on Friday rejected Facebook's bid to block an investigation that could potentially stop data transfers from the European Union to the United States. The Irish regulator launched its inquiry last summer after a top EU court decision over Facebook invalidated a key online data arrangement between Europe and the US. "The DPC decided to commence an 'own volition' inquiry ... to consider whether the actions of Facebook Ireland Ltd in making transfers of personal data relating to individuals in the European Union/European Economic Area are lawful, and whether any corrective power should be exercised by the DPC in that regard," the court statement noted.
Ireland's health service, the HSE, says they are refusing to pay a $20 million ransom demand to the Conti ransomware gang after the hackers encrypted computers and disrupted health care in the country. Ireland's Health Service Executive, the country's publicly funded healthcare system, shut down all of their IT systems on Friday after suffering a Conti ransomware attack.
Most recently a consulting Practice Manager and Executive Security Strategist at NTT Ltd., Ireland is a technology leader with management experience in security services, consulting, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, law enforcement and emergency services and three decades of technical experience in information security, IT systems, networks and enterprise operations. "We are so pleased to have Matt Ireland on board," said NTT Research President and CEO, Kazuhiro Gomi.
The National College of Ireland and the Technological University of Dublin have announced that ransomware attacks hit their IT systems. NCI is currently working on restoring IT services after being hit by a ransomware attack over the weekend that forced the college to take IT systems offline.
SoftServe has become an official Google Cloud reseller in the delivery and management of Google Cloud solutions. With this designation, SoftServe can support end-to-end delivery and management of Google Cloud solutions, from application development to cost control, in guiding its UK&I clients through the complex landscape of public cloud resource management.
Ireland's Data Protection Commission has fined Twitter €450,000 after ruling a bug in the firm's Android app that allowed users' private messages to be publicly viewed infringed the EU's General Data Protection Regulation. "The DPC's investigation commenced in January, 2019 following receipt of a breach notification from Twitter and the DPC has found that Twitter infringed Article 33(1) and 33(5) of the GDPR in terms of a failure to notify the breach on time to the DPC and a failure to adequately document the breach. The DPC has imposed an administrative fine of €450,000 on Twitter as an effective, proportionate and dissuasive measure" the DPC said.