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A Most Serius And Troubling Cyberattack For A Ransom!


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2021 May 10, 5:51am   377 views  7 comments

by ohomen171   ➕follow (2)   💰tip   ignore  

#eastcoastpipelinecompanyheld hostage The New York Times is talking about a most-serious ransomware attack that shut down an oil pipeline company that supplies half the fuel oil and gasoline for the US East Coast. This is most concerning. I gave a lot of thought to this yesterday. If this had happened during "the dead of winter," hundreds of thousands or millions of houses, apartments, and office buildings could find themselves without fuel oil. People could literally freeze to death.

State-sponsored hacking and cyberattacks go to a certain point and stop. What deters "crossing certain lines" is the fear of serious military retaliation. We have some very brave and stupid private hackers taking a giant risk for a huge payday in the tens of millions of dollars.

Criminals like these lock up the IT system of a company, hospital, or government agency. A ransom is demanded in Bitcoins (usually) to give the encryption code to release the organization's computer systems. A lot of organizations quietly pay. Other organizations bravely and rightfully refuse to pay. They build a whole new IT system to replace the one locked up.

Almost two years ago, I got hit with ransomware. After the lock-up, this ominous artificial intelligence voice demanded $5,000 in Bitcoins to release my computer. Those of you who know me well know that I do not "bow down to bullies and thugs." I took my computer to the retail store Best Buy. I left it with their Geek Squad team. I told them to rebuild a new computer, if necessary. I got a phone call a week later. I was told that my computer was ready. When I came to the store and went to check out, I got a huge surprise. The bill was only $249.00US. My computer was back to normal. The ransomware attack had been thwarted.

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1   NuttBoxer   2021 May 10, 10:02am  

Wait, I thought centralizing our resources was the way of the future? And that large corporations always take their cyber security SUPER seriously. And this definitely is NOT related to commodity shortages across the board due to centralization, over-regulation, and hyper-inflation!

Obviously the solution is to monitor everyone's online activity, trust the government even more, support even more monopolizing of resources, and pray big brother will shine his benevolence down on us. Picking up on the sarcasm yet..?
3   Misc   2021 May 11, 9:02am  

The people hacking our voting machines only wanted $1.9 trillion...so far, but they are shooting for another $4trillion.

Let's say we pay them in Bit coin.
4   HeadSet   2021 May 11, 6:46pm  


Sounds like you did not have any data you needed. Ransomware ain't about locking up a computer, it is about encrypting needed data. That is, data that cannot be replaced and must be available. Another form is when the data is sensitive, such as credit card info. A ransom is then required or the crooks will release the info to the public. The best defense against these sophisticated state-sponsored criminals is to have backups that are physically disconnected from the network after the backup is run. Then when hit, you can wipe your computers and reload software and then data.

I still find it hard to believe that when the crooks supply a proton mail address to sent in a sample (to prove they can decrypt it) and a bitcoin wallet number, that the CIA/FBI cannot track such to a perp.
5   NuttBoxer   2021 May 12, 8:02am  

HeadSet says
I still find it hard to believe that when the crooks supply a proton mail address to sent in a sample (to prove they can decrypt it) and a bitcoin wallet number, that the CIA/FBI cannot track such to a perp.


Never verified it, but someone on reddit claimed to have talked with protonmail staff, and they have plenty that leaves a trail anyone can follow. Since they're in Switzerland, not sure how hard it would be to get them to turn it over, but imagine it's not impossible. I would think they'd be using temporary email address over tor.

And on the attack, I assume ransomeware meant they've forced it shut, and won't reopen it without getting paid. But that would have to mean there's no manual over-ride in place..
6   RWSGFY   2021 May 12, 8:04am  

NuttBoxer says
And on the attack, I assume ransomeware meant they've forced it shut, and won't reopen it without getting paid. But that would have to mean there's no manual over-ride in place..


The pipeline co claims that the actual control system is not affected. Which makes the whole covfefe even more bizzare.
7   komputodo   2021 May 12, 9:52pm  

And nobody is talking about the massive leak they have in NC since Aug 2020...It must have gotten worse so find a reason to shut it down and blame china/russia...give them time to patch it up and raise prices... a win win

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