Russian Gang Hacks US Police

[paul.deitch]

I guess this kind of thing is going to happen more and more.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/may/11...

I wonder if the result will be "terminatlon" for somebody/ies to teach them a lesson. When you start irritating "the state" you move into dangerous waters.

[redback911]

Standard procedure for some large companies to hold bitcoin so they can payoff to gangs if they become infected with ransomware.

[anxious_ant]

This is concerning, looks like the hackers are gradually upping their game. Forget corporations, let's target state deparments instead.
Being Russian, any military reliattion is almost impossible.

[633Squadron]

Is it state sponsored?

Or does Uncle Sam just invest the time to identify the individuals?

[paul.deitch]

633Squadron said:

Is it state sponsored?

Unlikely as states normally hide what they can hack and don't draw attention to it because they want to extract more and more info without you knowing that it is happening.

[Don1]

Is it state sponsored? Well, the FSB aren't exactly falling over themselves to stop it.

[Ronstein]

It's a huge problem for the USA and, to a lesser extent, the UK as numbers 1 & 2 on the 'most targeted' list. The US has very comprehensive and prohibitive Cyber Security accreditation processes to try and prevent these attacks. Unfortunately, they're mostly looking at policies and processes rather than assessment and scans. Also, traditionally, government organisations are usually underfunded and slow to update systems and inefficient when it comes to maintenance & patching (NHS Wanna-Cry being a perfect example) with the exception of Defence and Critical National Infrastructure.

[Tankrizzo]

So the bigger problem for them at the moment is that last week, someone hit the Colonial Pipeline with a ransomware attack which stretches 5000 miles across the US and supplies a lot of states with petrol. The organisation who runs it is screwed and it's not operating properly. Big fights happening at petrol stations in Florida now as they run out and close.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/top-us-fue...

Reuters said:

Fuel shortages worsened in the southeastern United States on Wednesday, as the shutdown of the largest U.S. fuel pipeline network entered its sixth day and gasoline stations ran out of supply in some cities.

A ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline last week halted 2.5 million barrels per day of fuel shipments in the most disruptive cyberattack on U.S. energy infrastructure. The pipeline stretches 5,500 miles (8,850 km) from U.S. Gulf Coast oil refineries to consumers in Mid-Atlantic and Southeast states.

In Washington, D.C., top Biden administration officials met late Tuesday to discuss the incident and were considering ways to alleviate gasoline supply shortages, the White House said. Congressional committee members have asked that a White House interagency task force provide a formal briefing to discuss the federal response to the cyberattack.

Privately owned Colonial Pipeline manually opened portions of the line to release needed supplies in Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey and the Carolinas. It has accepted 2 million barrels of fuel to begin a restart that would "substantially" restore operations by week's end, the company said.

The supply crunch, amid panic buying by motorists, has brought long lines and high prices at gas stations ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend at the end of this month, which traditionally marks the start of the peak summer driving season.

The average national gasoline price rose to above $3.00 a gallon on Wednesday, the highest since 2014, the American Automobile Association said.

Nearly 60% of gas stations in metro Atlanta were without gasoline on Wednesday and more than 70% of stations were out in metro Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, tracking firm GasBuddy said. The states of Virginia and South Carolina also saw relatively high outages.