Ransomware attacks are hitting record highs in 2024 and show no sign of slowing down as new criminal groups enter the scene and employ a variety of evolving tactics. This post identifies key highlights of ransomware activity in 2024 so far. Multiple recent security reports have reported a significant increase in ransomware attacks claimed by […]
National Security & Digital Crimes
DOJ Continues to Investigate and Prosecute North Korean IT Worker Fraud Scheme
On Thursday, August 8, 2024, the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that it had charged a Nashville man for his alleged role in assisting the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“DPRK” or “North Korea”) with a scheme designed to funnel money from legitimate U.S. based businesses through fraudulently hired remote IT workers. The […]
6th Circuit Upholds 20-year Sentence of Chinese Spy, Convicted of Espionage Crimes, Attempting to Steal Trade Secrets
On August 7, 2024, the 6th Circuit upheld a Chinese spy’s twenty-year prison sentence for attempting to steal aviation trade secrets from General Electric (GE). Yanjun Xu, a deputy director in China’s Ministry of State Security, was responsible for trying to steal aviation-related proprietary information. He spent years inviting Western aviation experts to China, attempting […]
CISA and JCDC Conduct First-Ever Public-Private AI Security Incident Tabletop Exercise
On June 13, 2024, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) collaborated with the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) to hold the federal government’s first tabletop exercise for “AI security incidents. JCDC led the exercise and, true to JCDC’s public-private partnership model, included over 50 participants from various government agencies and private-sector companies. For those […]
U.S. Court Rules Against Online Travel Booking Company in Web-Scraping Case
On July 18, 2024, a federal jury in Delaware found that an online travel booking company violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) by accessing portions of a European airline’s website without permission and “with intent to defraud” the airline. In particular, the jury unanimously found that the online travel company violated the CFAA […]