In just a few years, cyber extortion has gone from a fringe hacking activity to something that is now very much mainstream. In fact, it’s now possible for hackers to make upwards of $360,000 per year by joining a cyber extortion team.
The US Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) has published a comprehensive analysis of the Lapsus$ hacker group’s cyber extortion activities. The report highlighted simple but effective tactics the Lapsus$ hackers used to compromise organizations and the existing security gaps enabling them.
Hackers used data from 2015 Ashley Madison data breach to conduct cyber extortion scams, asking users to pay more than $1,000 worth of Bitcoin.
AMD said it was investigating a data breach by the RansomHouse cyber extortion group claiming to have stolen 450 GB of data by exploiting weak passwords used by the chipmaker's employees.
RansomHub has claimed credit for the new cyber extortion attempt on Change Healthcare. The group says that it stole 4 TB of data that includes sensitive personal information, including financial information and medical records belonging to US military personnel.
The FBI warns that cybercriminals are targeting plastic surgery offices and stealing sensitive information, including medical records, in a multi-stage cyber extortion campaign.
