Tag Archive for: outbreaks

Baltimore’s 911 system, Boeing join Atlanta in week of crypto-malware outbreaks

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Enlarge / Ransomware took Baltimore’s 911 system offline on March 24 and 25 as the city’s IT department worked to isolate and restore the computer-assisted dispatch network. (credit: Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun/TNS via Getty Images)

Last Friday, the City of Atlanta was struck by a ransomware attack that took much of the city’s internal and external services offline. As of today, many of those services have been restored, but two public portals remain offline. On Saturday, the automated dispatch network for Baltimore’s 911 system was also taken offline by an apparent ransomware attack. And yesterday, Boeing’s Charleston facility—which manufactures components for Boeing’s 777 and other commercial jets, and for the Air Force’s KC-46 tanker—was struck by what was initially reported to be WannaCry malware.

While it is not clear at this point if these attacks are related in any way, the vulnerability of both businesses and government agencies—particularly local governments—to these sorts of attacks has been continuously demonstrated over the past few years. Even as organizations have moved to deal with the vulnerabilities that were exploited in the first waves of ransomware and ransomware-lookalike attacks, the attackers have modified their tactics to find new ways into networks, exploiting even fleeting gaps in defenses to gain a destructive foothold.

Baltimore’s 911 emergency weekend

In the case of the Baltimore 911 system, the type of ransomware attack is not yet clear, but the city’s top information systems official confirmed that Baltimore’s computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system was taken offline by ransomware. In a release emailed to Ars Technica, Baltimore Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer Frank Johnson said that the CAD network was shut down over the weekend “due to ‘ransomware’ perpetrators” and that the city’s IT team was able to “isolate the breach to the CAD network itself.” Systems connected to the CAD network, including systems at the Baltimore City Police Department, were taken offline to prevent the spread of the ransomware.

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Biz & IT – Ars Technica

The iPhone is nine years old – and still no significant malware outbreaks

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Apple started selling the Apple iPhone nine years ago today.

Here is what Apple’s press release had to say:

iPhone introduces an entirely new user interface based on a revolutionary multi-touch display and pioneering new software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers. iPhone combines three products into one small and lightweight handheld device – a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and the Internet in your pocket with best-ever applications on a mobile phone for email, web browsing and maps. iPhone ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, which completely redefines what users can do on their mobile phones.

Apple was right to describe the iPhone as revolutionary. It changed the world.

But what I find particularly remarkable is that despite Apple selling such a popular mobile computing device for nine years, there has still been no major outbreak of malware on the platform.

The attacks we have seen on iOS have either been against vulnerable jailbroken iPhones (a state which Apple has made harder to achieve with successive generations of the iOS operating system) or through sophisticated targeted attacks such as exploiting enterprise provisioning features, or infecting iOS devices through Mac OS X via a USB cable.

The fact that hackers had to go to the effort of publishing a tampered version of Apple’s XCode library on third-party sites in the hope that iOS developers would download and use it to compile their code is testament to just how hard criminals have found it to sneak malware into the official App Store.

These factors have meant that if your iPhone ever gets infected by malware at all, there’s a good chance that a state-sponsored attacker is responsible.

So, happy birthday iPhone. Yes, you have had your fair share of vulnerabilities, lock screen bypasses and poorly-coded third-party apps… but you have done a remarkable job of fending off major malware attacks.

Graham Cluley

Computer model predicts severity of flu outbreaks – CNET News

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Scientists at the National Institutes of Health said yesterday they have come up with a computer model they say can predict infection rates of the influenza virus, and it could help people gird up for flu season in the future. It has been well established …
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