Iranian men charged with SamSam ransomware attacks

A federal grand jury yesterday charged two Iranian men with developing and deploying the SamSam ransomware that has attacked hospitals and other computers in the past few years, the Department of Justice announced. “These defendants allegedly used ransomware to infect the computer networks of municipalities, hospitals and other key public institutions, locking out the computer owners, and then demanded millions of dollars in payments from them,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski. John Riggi, AHA senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk and former FBI cyber executive added, “Unfortunately this is a good example of U.S. hospitals being targeted by sophisticated cyber actors operating from the relative safe haven of a hostile nation state. This has allowed them to shield their hacking activities and diminish their chances of apprehension by U.S. law enforcement. Hospitals are challenged every day with significant foreign-based cyber-attacks.” For more information, see the latest Federal Bureau of Investigation Private Industry Notification.