Tag Archive for: Anthony

John Anthony Smith: Russian Speaking REvil Group Is Actively Causing Widespread Cyber Terror

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(John Anthony Smith, president of the fast-growing Conversant Group on the Southside, advises on Internet security after an attack by a Russian criminal gang on a U.S. pipeline company that caused many gas stations to run dry for several days).

Similar in some ways to the global SolarWinds breach that occurred last year, threat actors have once again breached another system used for monitoring, patching, and remote administration.[1]  On Friday, it became publicly known that Kaseya, a well-known player in Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tools, had succumbed to a supply chain compromise.  Kaseya’s RMM, known as VSA, is commonly used by Managed Service Providers to manage, monitor, and patch their customers’ infrastructures. 

 

REvil Group was able to breach Kaseya’s VSA system and use that system to destroy backups and subsequently encrypt over 200 organizations’ data.  Kaseya VSA by the nature of how its system works has highly privileged access to the infrastructures in which it is deployed, as it is used to monitor, manage, and patch systems.  Thus, REvil was able to orchestrate this malicious attack nearly unthwarted by security controls.  On Friday, Kaseya sent out a warning of a potential attack and urged customers to shut down their servers running the service.  According to Kaseya’s web site, more than 40,000 organizations use their products.

 

REvil is demanding $50,000 in ransom from smaller companies and $5 million from larger ones.[2]  REvil is a Russian speaking hacking group that is highly active, and they are the same group of threat actors that successfully collected an $11 million ransom from JBS Meats.  It is widely believed that REvil operates from Russia, and this recent compromise comes on the heels of President Joe Biden’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva.  It is obvious that Biden’s conversation has invoked little action, at least thus far, in reigning in REvil’s continued attacks.

 

Ransomware attacks have spiked in the past 1.5 years with $412 million in ransom payments being paid last year alone, and…

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John Anthony Smith: Huge Meat Producer Is Latest To Be Under Attack From Cyber Villains

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(John Anthony Smith, president of the fast-growing Conversant Group on the Southside, advises on Internet security after recent attacks by cyber gangs – first on a U.S. pipeline company and now a huge beef producer.)

 Just weeks after attackers shut down Colonial Pipeline, JBS, the second largest meat producer of beef, pork, and chicken in the U.S., is experiencing disrupted production due to a recent ransomware attack.


 

Unfortunately, the world has changed and threat actors are far more sophisticated than they once were.  In many cases, the capabilities of the threat actors are outpacing those of the defenders.  Conversant Group regularly aids companies, like JBS, in recovery from ransomware and other types of cyber events.  It absolutely breaks my heart to see companies and their customers suffer from these heinous crimes.  

A JBS shutdown, even for one day, would be equivalent to the loss of 25 percent of the U.S.’s beef processing capacity.  Any necessary shutdown, or delayed production, will result in increased prices.  While the threat actors get rich, their actions compound suffering for low income communities.

It seems, based on public statements, that JBS has protected its ability to recover; however, the ability to recover still, often, doesn’t translate to instant or rapid recovery.  We, at Conversant Group, are devoted to defending companies from these types of crimes, and our hope is to save as many as possible from this suffering.  Defense is always less expensive than recovery.  

 

Our prayers are with the IT and third party recovery and forensics teams as they work endlessly to get their systems back online.  We know, first hand, the toll the recovery from these events take on the IT staff involved.  We are sure there are many people not sleeping tonight while they put this environment back together.

As business leaders, we must evolve our defenses and continually attempt to outpace the attackers.

 

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St. Anthony to upgrade city cybersecurity after hacking attempt | Local News

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The City of St. Anthony will be upgrading its email and computer system threat protection after an unsuccessful hacking attempt that occurred last month.

“They were knocking at our door,” said City Clerk Patty Parkinson. “They were there trying to get in.”

During the city council meeting on April 22, Parkinson announced to the council that she got a call from the FBIa informing her that hackers were trying to gain access to the city’s online system.

“At first when I got the call I was like ‘yeah right, whoever you are —Mr. FBI’,” Parkinson said. “Here we are in little St. Anthony, Idaho but the thing that’s happening is they’re getting people. That’s how they make their money and they’re busy.”

Ransomware is a type of malicious software or malware, used by hackers, that prevents an individual, agency or business from accessing computer files, systems or networks, according to the FBI. Hackers then demand a ransom for the return of access.

In 2019, the city of Riviera Beach, Florida, paid nearly $600,000 in ransom to hackers who took control of the city’s computer system.

The city has had hackers attack its website before. Parkinson said she once got a call from an anonymous hacker that wanted a ransom payment to give back control to the city’s website in 2016. She did not give in to the ransom and told the hackers the city would handle its business physically, informing them that they could have the website.

Little did the hackers know they had taken control of the website for St. Anthony, Idaho when they were trying to take over the website for St. Anthony, Minnesota, she said.

“I finally drove down to them that we weren’t St. Anthony, Minnesota. The next day everything was fine, up and running. Didn’t cost us a dollar,” Parkinson said.

The hackers were angry at a St. Anthony, Minnesota police officer who shot a black man at a traffic stop and wanted to retaliate against the city and its police department by taking control of the city’s website, Parkinson said. The officer was charged with second-degree manslaughter but was found to be not guilty.

“After that, I walked into…

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No Flash on Apple’s iPad (Anthony Ha/VentureBeat)

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Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
No Flash on Apple’s iPad  —  Here’s another way Apple’s just-announced tablet device, the iPad, resembles a giant iPhone: It won’t run Flash content.  —  The continuing absence of Flash from the iPhone has been the subject of plenty of debate and speculation.

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