Tag Archive for: threatens

Pelosi Threatens Impeachment if Trump Doesn’t Resign ‘Immediately’; Twitter Permanently Suspends Him

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“If the president does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter on Friday.
Credit…Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California threatened on Friday that the House could move to impeach President Trump over his role in inciting a violent mob attack on the Capitol if he did not resign “immediately,” appealing to Republicans to join the push to force him from office.

After a 3.5-hour call with fellow Democrats, Ms. Pelosi said she had instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared to move forward with either a motion for impeachment or legislation sponsored by Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, to establish a body under the 25th Amendment that can declare a president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

“It is the hope of members that the president will immediately resign,” Ms. Pelosi said in a statement. “But if he does not, I have instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared.”

The announcement came after a call that Ms. Pelosi called “sad, moving and patriotic” in which members recounted the terror of the violent mob attack on the Capitol from Mr. Trump’s supporters.

“The violent insurrection was an attack on the caucus, the Congress, the country and the Constitution that was incited and facilitated by Donald Trump,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the caucus chairman, said on the call. “He must be held accountable for his actions.”

In a letter to House Democrats on Friday, Ms. Pelosi invoked the resignation of Richard M. Nixon amid the Watergate scandal, when Republicans prevailed upon the president to resign and avoid the ignominy of an impeachment, calling Mr. Trump’s actions a “horrific assault on our democracy.”

Ms. Pelosi also said she had spoken with Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about “preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes.”

A spokesman for General Milley, Col. Dave Butler, confirmed that the two had spoken and said the general had…

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Ransomware Group Threatens To Release Hospital Patient Photos

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Hacking group REvil threatens to release 900GB of before-and-after photos of cosmetic surgery patients unless ransom is paid

Hackers have threatened to release before-and-after patient photos stolen from a prominent UK hospital chain specialising in cosmetic surgery and weight loss.

The Hospital Group, also known as the Transform Hospital Group, confirmed it had been hit by a ransomware attack.

“We can confirm that our IT systems have been subject to a  data security breach,” the group said in a statement provided to the BBC.

“None of our patients’ payment card details have been compromised but at this stage, we understand that some of our patients’ personal data may have been accessed.”

security and privacy dataData theft

The groups aid it has informed the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of the incident.

Hacking group REvil, known for a May hack of celebrity law firm Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, as well as strikes on other prominent targets, claimed responsibility for the incident on a dark web site.

The the “intimate photos of customers” were “not a completely pleasant sight” the group said, claiming it had stolen 900 gigabytes of patient photographs.

In May the REvil group, also known as Sodinokibi, demanded $42 million (£31m) from New York-based GSMS after claiming it had compromised the company’s IT systems and stolen 756 gigabytes on A-list celebrities.

GSMS’ list of clients includes well-known figures such as Lady Gaga, Madonna, Mariah Carey, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Priyanka Chopra and Bette Midler.

High stakes

The group was also behind a ransomware attack on foreign currency seller Travelex on New Year’s Eve, 2019, that crippled the company’s services.

In recent months hacking groups such as REvil, which is believed to be based in Russia, have increasingly turned to targeted attacks on high-profile targets.

The groups’ malware locks their targets’ systems, rendering them useless without the payment of a  ransom.

In addition, ransomware groups have recently begun stealing customers’ data and threatening to release it to force companies to pay.

Law enforcement authorities discourage payment, saying it fuels criminals’ activities and doesn’t…

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FBI warns ransomware assault threatens US healthcare system

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BOSTON (AP) — Federal agencies warned that cybercriminals are unleashing a major ransomware assault against the U.S. healthcare system. Independent security experts say it has already hobbled at least four U.S. hospitals this month, and could potentially impact hundreds more.

In a joint alert Wednesday, the FBI and two federal agencies warned that they had “credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers.” They said “malicious cyber actors” are targeting the sector with ransomware that could lead to “data theft and disruption of healthcare services.”

The attacks coincide with the U.S. presidential election, but do not appear to have any connection to it.

“We are experiencing the most significant cyber security threat we’ve ever seen in the United States,” Charles Carmakal, chief technical officer of the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, said in a statement. He’s concerned that the group may deploy malware to hundreds of hospitals over the next few weeks.

Alex Holden, CEO of Hold Security, which has been closely tracking the ransomware in question for more than a year, agreed that the unfolding offensive is unprecedented in magnitude for the U.S. Administrative problems caused by ransomware, which scrambles data into gibberish that can only be unlocked with software keys provided once targets pay up, could further stress hospitals burdened by a nationwide spike in COVID-19 cases.

The Russian-speaking cybercriminals suspected of the attacks use a strain of ransomware known as Ryuk, which is seeded through a network of zombie computers called Trickbot that Microsoft began trying to counter earlier in October. While the company has had considerable success knocking Trickbot command-and-control servers offline through legal action, analysts say criminals have still been finding ways to spread Ryuk.

The U.S. has seen a plague of ransomware over the past 18 months or so.

In September, a ransomware attack hobbled all 250 U.S. facilities of the hospital chain Universal Health Services, forcing doctors and nurses to rely on paper and pencil for record-keeping and slowing lab…

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This devious malware now threatens Mac and Android users too

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A new strain of the GravityRAT malware, previously thought only to affect Windows machines, has crossed over to infect Android and macOS devices. The remote access trojan has been traced to Pakistani …
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