The hacker behind a ransomware attack on the city of Baltimore pleaded guilty on Tuesday to multiple hacking charges. Iranian national Sina Gholinejad, 37, admitted to using the Robbinhood ransomware variant to extort ransom payments from dozens of victims that included municipalities in New York and Oregon. Gholinejad was also behind a ransomware attack on...Read More
BALTIMORE — An Iranian national pleaded guilty to participating in an international ransomware scheme targeting multiple cities, including Baltimore. According to court documents, 37-year-old Sina Gholinejad and his co-conspirators compromised the computer networks of cities, corporations and health care organizations with Robbinhood to extort ransom payments. Baltimore lost more than $19 million from damage caused...Read More
On Tuesday, May 27, an Iranian national pled guilty to participating in an international ransomware and extortion scheme that affected U.S. cities including the City of Greenville that began in January 2019. According to the Department of Justice, Sina Gholinejad, 37, pled guilty to one count of computer fraud and abuse and one count of...Read More
Updated DragonForce ransomware infected a managed service provider, and its customers, after attackers exploited security flaws in remote monitoring and management tool SimpleHelp. In addition to deploying DragonForce ransomware across “multiple” endpoints, the criminals also stole sensitive data and used double-extortion tactics to pressure victims into paying the ransom, according to security shop Sophos. The...Read More
REUTERS FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines — One in every four companies in the Philippines has paid over $500,000 to recover their information technology (IT) systems from ransomware attacks. The amount also covers the cost of building up firewalls against future digital threats, according to Fortinet. Rashish Pandey of Fortinet told the Inquirer that cybercriminals are...Read More
New ransomware payment reporting rules have come into effect in Australia from today (May 30), applying to all organizations with an annual turnover of AUS $3m ($1.93M). The provisions, outlined in Australia’s Cyber Security Act 2024, also apply to private companies that operate critical infrastructure assets in the country. Applicable organizations must report any ransomware...Read More
COMMENTARY: Over the past several weeks, the retail sector has faced a significant wave of cyberattacks that targeted UK household names such as Marks & Spencer (M&S), Co-op, and Harrods—and more recently a breach that hit German-based Adidas.Just yesterday, news broke that Ohio-based Victoria’s Secret sustained a cyber incident that forced it to shut down its...Read More
The Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (Bundeskriminalamt or BKA) claims that Stern, the leader of the Trickbot and Conti cybercrime gangs, is a 36-year-old Russian named Vitaly Nikolaevich Kovalev. “The subject is suspected of having been the founder of the ‘Trickbot’ group, also known as ‘Wizard Spider,'” BKA said last week [English PDF], after another...Read More
A notice on St. Cloud, Florida’s website: May 29, 2025 – The City of St. Cloud, Florida (the “City”) is issuing updated notice of an event that may impact the security of information related to certain individuals. This notice supplements the notice previously posted on or website on or about May 24, 2024. What Happened? On or...Read More
