Tag Archive for: Running

1,000 gas stations report running out of fuel as Colonial Pipeline hack leads to panic-buying in Southeast U.S.

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State and federal officials are scrambling to find alternate routes to deliver gasoline in the Southeast U.S. after a hack of the nation’s largest fuel pipeline led to panic-buying that contributed to more than 1,000 gas stations running out of fuel.

There is no gasoline shortage, according to government officials and energy analysts, but if the pipeline shutdown continues past the weekend, it could create broader fuel disruptions.

The Colonial Pipeline, which delivers about 45% of what is consumed on the East Coast, was hit on Friday with a cyberattack by hackers who lock up computer systems and demand a ransom to release them. The attack raised concerns, once again, about the vulnerability of the nation’s critical infrastructure.

The pipeline runs from the Gulf Coast to the New York metropolitan region, but states in the Southeast are more reliant on the pipeline for fuel. Other parts of the country have more sources to tap. For example, a substantial amount of fuel is delivered to states in the Northeast by massive tankers.

“What you’re feeling is not a lack of supply or a supply issue. What we have is a transportation issue,” said Jeanette McGee, spokeswoman for the AAA auto club. “There is ample supply to fuel the United States for the summer, but what we’re having an issue with is getting it to those gas stations because the pipeline is down.”

In North Carolina, 28% of gas stations were out of fuel, according to Gasbuddy.com, a technology firm that tracks real-time fuel prices across the country. In Raleigh-Durham it was worse, with 72% of gas stations out of fuel.

North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper urged people Wednesday to only buy gas if their tank is low, and to report any instances of price gouging.

“We will continue our efforts to help make sure there is an adequate supply of fuel,” Cooper wrote on Twitter.

Cooper declared a state of emergency Monday, initiating fuel waivers that make it easier to transport fuel into the state.

Georgians were also getting squeezed, with 17.5% of stations there out of gas, according to Gasbuddy.com. In Virginia, 17% of stations were out, and in South Carolina, 16% had…

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Group pleads guilty to running bulletproof hosting service for criminal gangs, malware payloads

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Four individuals have pleaded guilty to running a bulletproof hosting service used by criminals to launch cyberattacks. 

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) said that Russian nationals Aleksandr Grichishkin and Andrei Skvortsov, alongside Lithuanian Aleksandr Skorodumov and Pavel Stassi, from Estonia, operated a bulletproof host between 2009 and 2015. 

Bulletproof hosting is a service in which a private online infrastructure is offered, and operators will generally turn a blind eye to what customers use their rented domains for. 

Copyright infringement notices are ignored, privacy is marketed as a feature of such services, and bulletproof offerings are the go-to for criminal groups seeking the infrastructure to host malware, establish command-and-control (C2) servers, and host illegal content including malicious software and child pornography. 

However, being willing to ignore the transgressions of clients does not mean that law enforcement will take the same stance, and in this case, the group has been charged with conspiring to engage in a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO).

According to the DoJ, the group rented out servers and domains that were used in criminal campaigns including attacks against US companies and financial organizations. 

Malware including the Zeus and SpyEye Trojans, Citadel Trojan and credential stealer, and the Blackhole exploit kit — used in drive-by downloads to serve payloads to victims — were among those hosted by the bulletproof hosting provider. 

“A key service provided by the defendants was helping their clients to evade detection by law enforcement and continue their crimes uninterrupted; the defendants did so by monitoring sites used to blocklist technical infrastructure used for crime, moving “flagged” content to new infrastructure, and registering all such infrastructure under false or stolen identities,” prosecutors say. 

All four have pleaded guilty to one count of the RICO charge in the US District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan and they may each face up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing has been set individually between June and…

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Keep Your Mac Safe and Running Like New! 8 Easy Ways to Avoid Malware

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Long gone are the days when we thought Mac computers couldn’t get infected with malicious software (or malware for short). Your Mac is at risk, just like any other Windows computer. Well, the risk isn’t as high, but your Mac still can get infected. Just look at the past few weeks. A new virus called Silver Sparrow has been infecting Mac computers. It came out of nowhere, and now over 30,000 Macs have been infected with this virus. Whether it’s a virus, ransomware, or any other type of malware, there are ways for you to prevent getting infected to your Mac running as good as new. Continue reading to browse eight ways to keep your Mac safe.

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Former US Director of cybersecurity: Crypto ransomware ‘running wild’

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Former Department of Homeland Security official Christopher Krebs called for greater governmental oversight of cryptocurrency in an interview yesterday, saying that anonymous payments are a threat “the average American is concerned about.” 

In an interview on Late Night with Bill Maher, Maher asked the former U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency director about his thoughts on Bitcoin.

“What’s gonna happen with Bitcoin? Where do you see that going? That’s in sort of your area, I see it bringing down civilization, but maybe I’m being anti-intellectual,” said Maher.

“Cryptocurrency is, as I see it, is one of the single enabling factors that has allowed cyber-criminals to deploy a massive amount of ransomware across our state and local agencies,” said Krebs. “It’s the anonymous payments, the ability to pay anonymously. And I think that is the cyber-threat that the average American is concerned about.”

Maher noted that 1600 schools have been hit with ransomware (citing a report from IBM), and Krebs added that there have also been attacks on “hospitals, and government agencies, I mean we had, Baltimore’s been hit twice, Atlanta, Mecklenburg county North Carolina, 23 counties in Texas, Louisiana’s been hit a couple times.”

“And they just want money. This isn’t anything sophisticated, this isn’t ideological,” Maher responded, comparing — puzzlingly — the ransomware attacks to the plot of the movie Die Hard. (Shortly after, Krebs incorrectly referred to the fictitious Nakatomi Plaza as “Nakasomi Tower”).

Krebs went on to warn of “bad guys” running wild if there are “no consequences.” He recommended “looking at” cryptocurrencies in exchange wallets, pressuring countries that cyber-criminals call home to crack down on illegal activites aimed at the U.S., and helping state and local governments improve their defenses.

Ransomware has been on the rise the last few years, likely contributing to an image problem in the cryptocurrency space. One recent poll indicates that only 43% of respondents believe cryptocurrency is a valid form of payment, and another from 2020 shows that 90% of respondents are “worried” about…

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