Agencies recommend action to protect against ransomware, data extortion threat 

The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Australian Cyber Security Centre issued recommendations to help critical infrastructure organizations protect their networks from ransomware attacks and data extortion by a cybercriminal group known as BianLian. 

“The BianLian group, unlike most other ransomware groups, seems to rely primarily on technical exploitation of remote access tools rather than phishing emails,” said John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “The BianLian group has also evolved its tactics to focus on data extortion — theft of sensitive data and threatening to publicize it unless a ransom is paid. The primary recommendations to mitigate this threat are ensuring all remote access software is strictly controlled, monitored and external access limited. As always, phishing-resistant multifactor authentication is a foundational cybersecurity practice, which should also be employed along with the other recommended mitigations contained in this alert.” 

For more information on this or other cyber and risk issues, contact Riggi at jriggi@aha.org. For the latest cyber and risk resources and threat intelligence, visit aha.org/cybersecurity.