Tuesday , September 17 2024

12 Days to Pay Ransom: Palo Alto County Sheriff Office Ransomware Attack

The Palo Alto County Sheriff Office seems to have become the latest victim of a ransomware attack after hacker collective Play ransomware added it to its list.

A deadline of 12 days to pay a ransom has been set by the ransomware group, following which they have threatened to publish the stolen data. The amount of ransom demanded has not been disclosed.

On April 9, the Play ransomware group published a post sharing details of the alleged Palo Alto County Sheriff Office ransomware attack.

The post, which had received over 212 views at the time of writing, also displayed April 21 as the date when the stolen data would be published.

DESCO faces cyber attack: Customers Data Breach

A recent dark web scan revealed that customer data from Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO) has been exposed. The...
Read More
DESCO faces cyber attack: Customers Data Breach

Alert! Google Fixes GCP Composer Flaw

Tenable Research found and fixed a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability, called CloudImposer, in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This flaw...
Read More
Alert! Google Fixes GCP Composer Flaw

CTF in Bangladesh: Unveiling Challenges, Opportunities and remedies

In this article, we won’t dive too deep into the technical aspects of Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions. Instead, we...
Read More
CTF in Bangladesh: Unveiling Challenges, Opportunities and remedies

Bitdefender blog post
Medusa target Fortinet flaw (CVE-2023-48788) for Ransomware Attacks

A recent Bitdefender report reveals that Medusa is still actively attacking and has created a notable presence on both the...
Read More
Bitdefender blog post  Medusa target Fortinet flaw (CVE-2023-48788) for Ransomware Attacks

Ivanti alerts ongoing exploitation of recently patched CAV

Ivanti warned that a recently fixed security flaw in its Cloud Service Appliance (CSA) is being actively exploited. CVE-2024-8190 is...
Read More
Ivanti alerts ongoing exploitation of recently patched CAV

CISA unveils 25 new advisories for Industrial Control Systems

CISA issued 25 ICS advisories on September 12, 2024, detailing current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits in Industrial Control Systems....
Read More
CISA unveils 25 new advisories for Industrial Control Systems

Intel Issues Alert on 20+ Vulnerabilities, Urges Firmware Updates

Intel announced over 20 vulnerabilities in its processors and products in security advisories released on Tuesday. The chip giant has...
Read More
Intel Issues Alert on 20+ Vulnerabilities, Urges Firmware Updates

Urgent: GitLab Patches flaws allowing unapproved pipeline Job Execution

GitLab released security updates on Wednesday to fix 17 vulnerabilities, including a critical issue that lets attackers run pipeline jobs...
Read More
Urgent: GitLab Patches flaws allowing unapproved pipeline Job Execution

Fortinet admits data breach after hacker claims to steal 440GB

Fortinet confirmed a data breach after a threat actor claimed to have stolen 440GB of files from its Microsoft SharePoint...
Read More
Fortinet admits data breach after hacker claims to steal 440GB

Gov.t issues high alert on android devices

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issued a high-severity alert for android devices on September 11, 2024 highlighting the vulnerabilities...
Read More
Gov.t issues high alert on android devices

Despite the hacker collective taking responsibility for the alleged Palo Alto County Sheriff Office ransomware attack, the official website seems to be functioning fine and was accessible at the time of writing.

The Cyber Express has reached out to Sheriff John D. King to confirm the cyber incident. However, we are yet to receive a response.

Former Chief Deputy John King was sworn in as the Sheriff of Palo Alto County on September 1, 2022. King served Emmetsburg and Palo Alto for over two decades before taking charge as the Sheriff.

Ransomware groups target Sheriff’s Office

Earlier, the Sheriff’s Office of Washington County in northern Florida was targeted by the LockBit ransomware group in February 2023.

Details of over 500 Washington County Sheriff’s Office present and past employees were threatened to be leaked. The data of the employees included residential addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers.

The deadline for paying the ransom was March 30.

Reacting to the devious act, the then Sheriff Kevin Crew said at a Washington County Commission meeting, “There is no perfect system. There is no 100% safe this will never happen to you, but there are things you can do that make it a whole lot harder.”

Crew further said, “Now I’ve got that word along with and not just the people that work there we’re up to about 500 people that work there as far back as probably 1970s, 1980s.”

We’re up to 500 people so trying to figure out how to get a hold of all these people because their personal data has now been compromised.

The authorities declined the ransom demands following which stolen employee data was allegedly leaked online. They instead invested the money in tech services to bring back the systems to their complete functionality.

Despite disrupting the entire system of the Sheriff’s Office for over two weeks, as discovered by authorities on February 21, calls for service remained accessible to people and staff.

The ransomware attack on the Washington County Sheriff’s Office was suspected of having originated in Russia by the officials.

he Palo Alto County Sheriff Office seems to have become the latest victim of a ransomware attack after hacker collective Play ransomware added it to its list.

A deadline of 12 days to pay a ransom has been set by the ransomware group, following which they have threatened to publish the stolen data. The amount of ransom demanded has not been disclosed.

(Photo: Brett Callow/ Twitter)

On April 9, the Play ransomware group published a post sharing details of the alleged Palo Alto County Sheriff Office ransomware attack.

The post, which had received over 212 views at the time of writing, also displayed April 21 as the date when the stolen data would be published.

Despite the hacker collective taking responsibility for the alleged Palo Alto County Sheriff Office ransomware attack, the official website seems to be functioning fine and was accessible at the time of writing.

The Cyber Express has reached out to Sheriff John D. King to confirm the cyber incident. However, we are yet to receive a response.

Former Chief Deputy John King was sworn in as the Sheriff of Palo Alto County on September 1, 2022. King served Emmetsburg and Palo Alto for over two decades before taking charge as the Sheriff.

Ransomware groups target Sheriff’s Office

Earlier, the Sheriff’s Office of Washington County in northern Florida was targeted by the LockBit ransomware group in February 2023.

Details of over 500 Washington County Sheriff’s Office present and past employees were threatened to be leaked. The data of the employees included residential addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers.

The deadline for paying the ransom was March 30.

Reacting to the devious act, the then Sheriff Kevin Crew said at a Washington County Commission meeting, “There is no perfect system. There is no 100% safe this will never happen to you, but there are things you can do that make it a whole lot harder.”

Crew further said, “Now I’ve got that word along with and not just the people that work there we’re up to about 500 people that work there as far back as probably 1970s, 1980s.”

We’re up to 500 people so trying to figure out how to get a hold of all these people because their personal data has now been compromised.

The authorities declined the ransom demands following which stolen employee data was allegedly leaked online. They instead invested the money in tech services to bring back the systems to their complete functionality.

Despite disrupting the entire system of the Sheriff’s Office for over two weeks, as discovered by authorities on February 21, calls for service remained accessible to people and staff.

The ransomware attack on the Washington County Sheriff’s Office was suspected of having originated in Russia by the officials.

Check Also

Report

CISA unveils new Cyber Incident Reporting Portal

CISA has moved its cyber incident reporting form to the new CISA Services Portal to …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *