Cyber Extortion Demands Surge as Victims Keep Paying: Symantec (USNews.com): Alastair Sharp reports that hackers continue to use ransomware to extort increasingly hefty fees from their victims. According to the article the average ransom has increased more than threefold from $294 to $1,077, as cyber extortionists continue to explore the ceiling. The article states that in the U.S., over 60% of victims pay the ransom demands thus with such good returns, the attackers continue to raise their prices. This trend, it seems, is a rather disturbing one. The full text of the article is here.
Chinese Hackers shift focus to Asia after U.S. Accord (Financial Times): In this article, Jeevan Vasagar and Leo Lewis state that a Chinese hacker group, Conference Crew, shifted from U.S. targets to targets across Asia following the 2015 agreement between President Obama and Xi Jinping. The article indicates that targets include countries such as: India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Macau, and Hong Kong. The full text of the article is here.
A Cybersecurity Group Thinks Russia is Trying to hack the French Election (Vox): Zeeshan Aleem reports that Trend Micro has asserted that a Russian intelligence unit targeted Emmanuel Macron’s campaign and further that Trend Micro believes this is the same group that targeted the DNC. The article states that Trend Micro found similarities in the range of IP addresses used in the French and US hacks, as well as in the malware itself. Furthermore, the French government cybersecurity arm, ANSSI, confirmed that Macron did suffer cyberattacks, according to the report. However, ANSSI, did reportedly state that this attacks could have been perpetrated by a group mimicking the Russian group’s modus operandi thus making it appear as though the Russians were behind the attack, according to the report. The full text of the article is here.
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