Tag Archives: ransomware

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has asked the heads of the Office of Management and Budget and Department of Homeland Security about the measures the agencies have taken in response to the ransomware attack. In a letter to OMB Director Mick Mulvaney …

Thomas Bossert, an adviser to President Donald Trump on homeland security and counterterrorism, has said the ransomware attack that affected computer systems worldwide was not carried out using a tool developed the National Security Agency, CNS News reported Monday. Bossert added he believes that the ransomware worm, dubbed WannaCry or WanaCrypt, was developed …

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) has asked the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority about its cybersecurity operations, wireless communication deployment efforts and measures to address interoperability issues related to its communications systems for first responders. Warner, co-founder of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, raised the three areas of concern in a letter to …

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a guide on cybersecurity events designed to help organizations establish a plan for cyber attacker containment and incident recovery. NIST said Thursday its computer researchers published the Guide for Cybersecurity Event Recovery in a push to consolidate current recovery guidance on incident handling …

Reps. Ted Lieu (D-California) and Will Hurd (R-Texas) have asked the Department of Health and Human Services to develop guidance that would require healthcare providers to immediately report cases of ransomware-related attacks to government agencies and information sharing and analysis organizations. The lawmakers told Deven McGraw, deputy director for health information privacy …

The information technology personnel at the House of Representatives has cut lawmakers’ access to Google cloud-hosted software applications due to potential security threats, Reuters reported Wednesday. Dustin Volz writes the House blocked devices used by legislators from gaining entry to the appspot.com domain, where Google hosts custom applications for use …

The Department of Homeland Security has said it has received 321 reports of ransomware-related incidents from 29 federal agencies, The Hill newspaper reported Wednesday. Cory Bennett writes DHS noted that there were no cases in which agencies paid threat actors due to the inability of the malware to infect the agencies’ network …

Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have issued letters to inquire about the efforts the departments of Homeland Security and Justice launched to counter attacks related to ransomware. The letter sent to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson Thursday asks how the adoption of Einstein threat prevention tool has reduced the incidence of ransomware at government …

The Justice Department has collaborated with European law enforcement agencies to uncover a network of cybercrime operations believed to have stolen more than $100 million from victims worldwide, FedScoop reported Monday. Dan Verton writes the FBI worked to search and seize the Cryptolocker ransomware and GameOver Zeus botnet servers responsible …