On 22 March 2018, the public learned of a ransomware attack in the City of Atlanta information systems. The City of Atlanta held a press conference soon after the news broke and multiple news outlets covered the incident. In this article, I don’t want to re-hash the information already presented but rather highlight a few […]
Tag: fbi
Cyber Attack on the City of Atlanta – A stark reminder of the need for and importance of ethical hacking
Thursday morning (22 March, 2018), the City of Atlanta’s computer systems fell victim to what’s being called a ‘cyber attack’. According to the information that we’ve seen thus far, the attack is apparently a ransomware attack demanding payment in exchange for the decryption keys to unlock the affected data. According to news articles, local, state […]
Quick comments on the proposed encryption bill and the Apple -vs- FBI battle (yes, they’re related)
New encryption bill proposed by Richard Burr (Republican, North Carolina) and Dianne Feinstein (Democrat, California) seeks to effectively require backdoors in encryption. The intent of the law is, I believe, noble. The backdoors would only be available to law enforcement and then only in the most serious circumstances like terrorist attacks, child pornography, human trafficking, […]
An honest, hard look at why the state of our cyber security is so bad (phishing still works)
Phishing is a popular technique used by attackers for one simple reason, it works. Whether it’s to entice the target into opening a document or spreadsheet with a malicious attachment (that will attempt to infect their computer with ransomware, spyware, etc.), clicking a link to a malicious website that will do the same or posing […]
Yet another look at the FBI -vs- Apple encryption fiasco and how it’s relevant to, well, everything
Back Story So, for anyone that’s been living under a rock, Syed Farook, the San Bernardino shooter’, had an Apple iPhone 5C. The FBI believes that there may be information on the phone relevant to their investigation of this and possibly planned attacks. Thing is though, the phone is protected with a PIN and all […]