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Cyber Daily: One Ransomware Victim Fights Back in Court; CISOs Lament Shortage of Talent
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Good day. Southwire, which makes cables, wire and other tools, is suing a “John Doe” hacker for a ransomware attack, WSJ Pro’s Catherine Stupp reports. The Georgia company also got an injunction against a firm that hosted a site where the anonymous hacker posted some Southwire data. The unusual moves could help insulate the company from legal fallout from any data breach related to the ransomware incident.
Also today: CISOs from Best Buy, Chipotle and Target discuss the cybersecurity talent shortage.
Other news: Hackers who one researcher says are linked to Russia are probing systems at Burisma; U.S. and U.K. to talk—again—about Huawei; and Windows 7 will grow increasingly vulnerable, Britain’s intelligence agency says.
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Ransomware attacks have been on the rise, with hackers using more sophisticated methods and demanded more money from victims. PHOTO: SIMON DAWSON/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Ransomware victim’s unusual response: legal action against unknown attackers. Shortly after cable manufacturer Southwire Co. was hit with a ransomware attack in December, the Carrollton, Ga.-based company chose an unusual response: It filed a lawsuit against the unidentified hackers.
Taking legal action could help ransomware victims protect themselves from the legal fallout in the wake of a breach, cybersecurity experts said—even if it is unlikely to deter hackers from making demands.
Southwire took a two-step legal approach. It filed a complaint in a federal court, seeking damages from hackers. The lawsuit is against “John Doe” and states that Southwire is unaware of the defendant’s name.
Separately, Southwire obtained an emergency injunction the same day from an Irish judge, removing a public website, hosted by an Irish firm, where hackers had posted some of Southwire’s stolen data.
Read the full article.
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Security chiefs at retailers Target Corp., Best Buy Co. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. on Monday lamented the tough market for cybersecurity hiring while speaking on a panel at the National Retail Federation’s annual conference in New York.
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They also outlined tactics they use for retaining high-performing security pros and seeding the sector with promising talent.
“If we can’t get people we need, this is a really big deal,” said Adam Mishler, CISO at Best Buy (pictured center).
Because cybersecurity isn’t widely taught in colleges and universities, corporate CISOs have to be creative about the kind of professionals they seek, said Dave Estlick, CISO at Chipotle. Mr. Estlick (pictured right) joined Chipotle in December, after more than nine years in cybersecurity at Starbucks Corp.
Rather than require a certain number of years of security experience, he looks for problem-solvers. “I’m as likely to hire somebody with an economics degree as computer science,” he said, because both disciplines rely on the ability to see patterns.
Helping prospects see the excitement in cybersecurity is valuable, said Target CISO Rich Agostino (pictured left). He regularly talks to students in regions near the company’s Minneapolis headquarters office. “They think you’re sitting in front of a computer all day waiting for an alarm bell to go off,” he said. He explains how cybersecurity touches various technology and business positions and that security experts can have long-term careers.
Mr. Estlick said three tenets make for satisfied, loyal cybersecurity staffers: interesting work; an opportunity to learn from experts and, in turn, to become one; and fair compensation.
The executives counseled patience as the young discipline develops. After all, Mr. Agostino noted, his own position didn’t exist until relatively recently. “CISO weren’t even a thing 20 years ago.”
—Kim S. Nash
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“The human still tends to be the most easily compromised.”
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—Mark Morrison, chief information security officer at Options Clearing Corp., discussing the range of corporate vulnerabilities during the WSJ Pro Cybersecurity Symposium in San Diego last week.
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Attempts to hack into Burisma began in November as Congress was holding impeachment hearings, according to a U.S. cybersecurity firm. PHOTO: SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES
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Russians breached Burisma during Trump impeachment probe, report says. Hackers believed to be affiliated with Russia’s military breached the Ukrainian gas company where former Vice President Joe Biden’s son had served on the board as it became a focus of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, according to Area 1, a California-based company. Attempts to hack into Burisma Holdings began last November, as Congress was holding hearings into whether Mr. Trump abused his office by pressuring his Ukrainian counterpart to work with his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to investigate Mr. Biden and his son, Hunter, the WSJ reports, citing Area 1 research published Monday.
Ongoing: The hacking attempts are ongoing and are linked to the Russian military intelligence unit previously known as the GRU, which hacked and leaked Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential election, Area 1 said. The Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
U.S. and U.K. officials to discuss Huawei as 5G decisions loom. Government officials from the two nations are due to meet, along with telecommunications executives, to air concerns about potential security risks in allowing equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co. into 5G infrastructure, Reuters reports. The U.K. is expected to decide this month whether to approve of Huawei technology in the next-generation networks. The U.S. has pressured European nations to ban the gear, which it says could introduce vulnerabilities into 5G systems.
Britain’s intelligence agency warns against banking on Windows 7 devices. The U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ, said computers running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7 will become a security problem as the company ends its upgrades for the operating system Tuesday, the Telegraph reports. GCHQ said that individuals shouldn’t use email, banking apps and other software containing sensitive data on devices that run Windows 7 because hackers are likely to exploit its flaws. The system was released in 2009.
New York Fed paper warns a cyberattack on banks could cause major disruption. A well-planned cyberattack on the U.S. banking system could have a devastating effect on U.S. financial stability, WSJ Pro's Michael S. Derby reports, citing new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The paper notes that a cyberattack could have a lot in common with an old-school bank run, where a bank is unable to provide money to customers who want their funds and panic ensues.
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