Agencies alert private sector to ransomware threat

The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Department of the Treasury, and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network today urged organizations to take certain actions to protect their networks from MedusaLocker ransomware, which uses vulnerabilities in the Remote Desktop Protocol to access victims’ networks and encrypt their data.

John Riggi, AHA’s National Advisor for Cybersecurity and Risk, said, “This joint agency advisory contains very detailed and actionable indictors of compromise. The advisory also highlights the danger of unsecured remote desktop protocol and phishing emails as the initial attack vector. The ‘ransomware as a service’ business model used by the MedusaLocker gang facilitates the continuing global proliferation of ransomware — even by relatively unsophisticated cyber actors. It is strongly recommended that organizations continue to emphasize phishing email education for staff, exercise cyber incident response plans, and ensure the segregation and security of network and data backups, among the many helpful risk mitigation recommendations contained in the advisory.” 

For more information on this or other cybersecurity and risk topics, contact Riggi at jriggi@aha.org.