Comment: University of California paid £1 Million ransom to Cyber criminals

Information Security Buzz
Monday, June 29, 2020

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The University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) says it has paid cybercriminals $1.14 million (£1 million) to decrypt a “limited number of servers” in its School of Medicine, which were hit by ransomware this month.

Ilia Kolochenko, CEO, ImmuniWeb

We will likely see a steady growth of ransomware hacking campaigns targeting the public sector in 2020.

The disclosed technical details of the attack are obscure and insufficient to derive definitive conclusions about the origins and nature of this exorbitant incident. In light of the well-known malware reportedly used in the attack, we may, however, assume that the attack exploited a lack of IT asset visibility, improperly implemented security monitoring or patch management.

Public schools frequently save money on cybersecurity, trying to invest budgets into apparently more appealing areas to deliver more value for students and society. Unfortunately, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and unscrupulous attackers readily exploit any inadequate resilience and unpreparedness to extort money. Covid-19 largely exacerbates the situation with the surge of shadow IT, abandoned servers, and unprotected applications serving as an easy entry point into disrupted organizations. Cryptocurrencies turn cyber extortion and racketeering into a highly profitable and riskless business given that in most cases the attackers are technically untraceable and thus enjoy impunity. We will likely see a steady growth of ransomware hacking campaigns targeting the public sector in 2020. Read Full Article