Ransomware

A Sarajevo municipality has temporarily stopped issuing birth certificates due to a computer virus that locks documents in its database for the second time in some two weeks.  

The Minister of Justice, Catalin Predoiu, sent prosecutors a firm message in which he urges them to take the money of criminals, emphasizing that the coronavirus pandemic offers various opportunities to criminals to attack medical institutions. "Follow the money resulting from crimes, not only the criminals, take the money produced through crime, take everything they stole.

Romanian cybersecurity giant Bitdefender said on Friday that online attacks linked to Covid-19 "have risen by 475 per cent in March as compared to the previous month", and the numbers are expected to keep increasing until the end of the month.

"Almost one third of the Covid-19-related attacks target public authorities and healthcare institutions," Bitdefender said in a statement.

Yesterday, the European Commission released its latest survey on Europeans' attitudes towards cybercrime.

The internet has made life easier in a whole lot of ways. Love that convenience? So do criminals, according to cnet.com

A report out Wednesday says cybercrime may now be costing businesses worldwide as much as 0 billion, and it points to the ease of digital crime as the reason.

Britain blamed Russia on Thursday for a cyber-attack last year, publicly pointing the finger at Moscow for spreading a virus which disrupted companies across Europe including UK-based Reckitt Benckiser, according to Reuters. 

Russia denied the accusation, saying it was part of "Russophobic" campaign it said was being waged by some Western countries.

Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer, Brad Smith, said the DPRK is responsible for cyber attacks with the WannaCry virus, which affected more than 200,000 users earlier this year, ITV reported, quoted by BGNES.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned the alliance must step up its defense against cyberattacks, saying they could potentially trigger their Article 5 mutual defense commitment.

Computer users around the world were scrambling on June 28 to reboot systems after a tidal wave of ransomware cyberattacks spread from Ukraine and Russia across Europe to the United States and then on to Asia.

At least three multinational companies in Romania have been affected by the massive cyberattack that has hit institutions, companies and banks in Russia, Ukraine, Denmark, the UK and even the United States - and which continued to spread on Wednesday into Asia.

As the world reels from the WannaCry ransomware attack, it's now emerged that a second, potentially larger attack, is already under way. It seems the widespread proliferation of military-grade cyberweapons has ushered in a new era of digital crime.