Las Vegas law enforcement, the FBI, and Semperis conducted a ransomware tabletop exercise targeting the healthcare sector at Black Hat USA 2024 to tackle rising threats exemplified by the Change Healthcare attack. This exercise involved a red team launching a ransomware attack against a simulated hospital, Sunshine Healthcare, intending to disrupt patient services to the point of forcing a ransom payment. The scenario illustrated the ease with which attackers exploit vulnerabilities despite healthcare's need for quick yet cautious responses due to patient care priorities. Post-Change Healthcare's attack, United Healthcare paid a $22 million ransom, underscoring the critical negotiations' challenges. Experts emphasize that direct communication with attackers should be avoided, advocating for third-party negotiation assistance to mitigate risks.

#BHUSA: Ransomware Drill Targets Healthcare in Operation 911 Infosecurity Magazine

Grant Smith, a security researcher, received a 'USPS package delivery' smishing text—one of up to 100,000 scam texts sent daily worldwide by the Smishing Triad. Upon discovering that his wife had fallen for the scam and entered her credit card details, Smith embarked on a mission to hunt down the scammers. Over several weeks, he exposed the Chinese-language group behind the scheme, hacked into their systems, and gathered substantial evidence. He provided this information to USPS inspectors and a US bank, preventing further fraudulent activities. Smith's findings reveal the mass scale of the problem, affecting hundreds of thousands of victims who inadvertently provided sensitive personal information.

USPS Text Scammers Duped His Wife, So He Hacked Their Operation Wired

At the Black Hat security conference, Jen Easterly, head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), emphasized the need for a fundamental change in software development practices to improve cybersecurity. Easterly attributed the current epidemic of security breaches to poor software quality, advocating for a "secure by design" approach. CISA has garnered commitments from 200 companies to improve their product security since the launch of this pledge in March. Additionally, the Biden administration is contemplating software liability reforms to hold technology vendors accountable for flaws, urging Congress to establish a software liability regime. National Cyber Director Harry Coker echoed the need for greater resilience against cyberattacks and supported a bipartisan Senate bill aimed at streamlining cybersecurity regulations. Coker also mentioned ongoing efforts by the Department of Treasury to develop a federal cyber insurance backstop for catastrophic cyber events, though this initiative remains in its early stages.

Easterly: Cybersecurity is a software quality problem cyberscoop

Sen. JD Vance's public Venmo friends list exposed 211 political operatives, tech executives, and other potentially sensitive contacts, highlighting the importance of privacy settings on the app. By default, Venmo makes friends lists and transaction details public, which can pose security risks and reveal personal data. Users can enhance their privacy by adjusting settings to make their friends list and transactions private, and enabling additional authentication layers. This incident serves as a reminder to regularly check and update privacy settings on all apps to protect personal information.

PSA: Don't Be Like JD Vance And Leave Your Venmo Public HuffPost