Cybersecurity Weekly: Ransomware payment prohibition, DoJ files charges for fake Cisco gear, Google improving privacy after Roe v. Wade ruling

Ransomware payment prohibition spreading, fake cisco gear puts CEO in DoJ sights, and Google deleting sensitive medical locations from user history. All these and more in this week's edition of Cybersecurity Weekly.

1. Trend of states prohibiting ransomware payments is spreading

Increasingly, state legislatures have made it illegal to use public funds to pay ransom in ransomware cases. This reflects an ideological view that, if everyone agrees not to pay ransom, ransomware attacks will subside because they are unlikely to be successful for the ransomware threat actor.

2. U.S. DoJ charges CEO for dealing $1B in fake Cisco gear

Fraudster allegedly passed off refurbished, modified Cisco equipment as new to hospitals, schools, and even the military.

3. Ransomware group switching programming languages from Go to Rust

Microsoft security researchers have discovered new variants of the one-year-old Hive ransomware that was written in the Go programming language but has been re-written in Rust.

4. Privacy Win: Google to delete sensitive medical locations from user history

Google announced it will immediately delete location history when users visit sensitive medical facilities like abortion clinics following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in the United States last month.

5. Mangatoon data breach exposes data from 23 million accounts

Comic reading platform Mangatoon has suffered a data breach that exposed information belonging to 23 million user accounts after a hacker stole it from an unsecured Elasticsearch database.

Posted: July 11, 2022

Ryan Miner

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