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FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#51

Post by closeparen »

vmception wrote: post #26
ncallaway wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would the smart contract be able to validate that the 'keys' it releases are authentic before-hand?

It wouldn't. The smart contract would just wait for payment and the control server would watch for payments. the victim would still have to trust that this process was in place, but for operator can have it completely automated doesn't actually have to be a smart contract, just any address essentially. but a smart contract could allow for many more features, not sure if you'd really want that here

I'm imagining that "keep this value secret until payment is made" could be handled entirely on the blockchain, so that there is no C&C to shut down. But I'm not actually that familiar with the capabilities and limitations of smart contracts.

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#52

Post by MattGaiser »

Stierlitz wrote: post #29

Seriously HR admins, if you care anything about your reputation, you should cease re-posting this kind of neocon disinformation.

You are on a site where there are thousands of people who have personally encountered ransomware.

Are we all neocons to you?

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#53

Post by dzhiurgis »

shajznnckfke wrote: post #34
kylebenzle wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone else feel that any organization that isn't doing regular secure backups with a way to restore that data deserves for this to happen? It like an airplane running out of gas because the pilot forgot to fill up the tank. Its kind of step one of working with computers.

“Deserve” doesn’t do anything for the people hurt by this, and it doesn’t justify the behavior of the hackers.

Pay the ransom and nobody gets hurt. It's actually tiny price to pay compared to proper infrastructure. Insurers make trillions, it's nothing to them.

The happy ending of this would be continuing to pay terrorists who keep you IT top notch...

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#55

Post by agar »

kylebenzle wrote: post #32
haswell wrote: post #8

This is not what we need in these final chapters of 2020 with COVID cases spiking. > Charles Carmakal, senior vice president for Mandiant, told Reuters that UNC1878 is one of most brazen, heartless, and disruptive threat actors he’s observed over the course of his career. This is what terrorism looks like in 2020. Horrifying, terrifying, disgusting.

Does anyone else feel that any organization that isn't doing regular secure backups with a way to restore that data deserves for this to happen? It like an airplane running out of gas because the pilot forgot to fill up the tank. Its kind of step one of working with computers.

You certainly express an unpopular opinion, and at first glance you are right: secure backups should be a priority for any IT organization.

However, not all backups are continuous and pervasive. There are often backup windows, gaps, and processes that halt with no one noticing. Ryuk also actively disables and deletes backups to maximize impact, while also seeking out mount points that might be backup targets - and encrypts those as well.

Of course, we're also talking about hospitals here. Even a well-managed system with hourly differential backups leaves plenty of time for radiology data to be lost in the critical hour before life saving surgery.

More realistically though, how long would it take you to discover and remove a sophisticated penetration, then restore every device, ensure none of the restores are also infected by the malware that had probably been there for a while, and bring a hospital system with thousands of impacted systems back online? 72 hours? A week? A month?

What happens to the patients? Admissions to the emergency room? What if adjacent hospitals are also hit, or are already impacted by the COVID spike and have no open beds?

People literally die due to hospital ransomware attacks. No one deserves that.

Ransomware is akin to kidnapping, it's just the data and customers that are held hostage, not kids or loved ones. Always blame the criminal, never the victim.

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#56

Post by [deleted] »

kylebenzle wrote: post #32
haswell wrote: post #8

This is not what we need in these final chapters of 2020 with COVID cases spiking. > Charles Carmakal, senior vice president for Mandiant, told Reuters that UNC1878 is one of most brazen, heartless, and disruptive threat actors he’s observed over the course of his career. This is what terrorism looks like in 2020. Horrifying, terrifying, disgusting.

Does anyone else feel that any organization that isn't doing regular secure backups with a way to restore that data deserves for this to happen? It like an airplane running out of gas because the pilot forgot to fill up the tank. Its kind of step one of working with computers.

[deleted]

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#57

Post by djsumdog »

SimbaOnSteroids wrote: post #35
Larrikin wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the assumption that its terrorist and not a state sanctioned attack?

These are not mutually exclusive.

True. The United States is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world (School of the Americas, Bay of Pigs, Iranian-Contra, Operation AJAX, COINTELPRO, Operation Mockingbird, United Fruit...)

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#58

Post by lotsofpulp »

enahs-sf wrote: post #41

I'm not sure how, but somehow, I suspect that my health insurance premiums are about to increase.

Health insurance premiums are just total healthcare costs for the insured lives plus x% for operations of the health insurance company. If all hospitals have to raise prices to meet IT costs, then presumably the total cost of healthcare for the insured lives goes up, and hence the health insurance premium has to go up.

So yes, typically if your vendor's suppliers increase price, then your vendor will increase their price too. If your vendor has big margins and you have the ability to switch to a different vendor, then maybe the vendor will eat the cost, but health insurance is already a low margin business, so that's not likely.

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#59

Post by keeganpoppen »

djsumdog wrote: post #57
SimbaOnSteroids wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are not mutually exclusive.

True. The United States is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world (School of the Americas, Bay of Pigs, Iranian-Contra, Operation AJAX, COINTELPRO, Operation Mockingbird, United Fruit...)

got anything from the past 50 years?

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#60

Post by mullingitover »

Interesting that DHS's public twitter has no word of this, and instead is a full-time campaign ad for the border fence.

It's also ironic that for all the pervasive government surveillance of the internet, this stuff just flies right under the radar. I thought the whole point of this surveillance was for our protection?

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