Tag Archive for: conspiracy

Ransomware attack on AIIMS a conspiracy, planned by forces that are significant: MoS IT Chandrasekhar

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The ransomware attack on the servers of AIIMS Delhi is a conspiracy and planned by forces that are significant, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday.

The servers of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, have been out of order for the 10th consecutive day due to the ransomware attack.

”It is clearly a conspiracy and it has been planned by forces that are pretty significant. It is a sophisticated ransomware attack. We will wait for the outcome of CERTin and NIA (National Investigation Agency) before we come to conclusion on who is behind the ransomware attack,” Chandrasekhar said.

In a ransomware attack, cybercriminals lock access to data or a device and promise to unlock it after they are paid the desired ransom.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Delhi cybercrime special cell, Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation, National Forensic Sciences University, National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre, and National Investigation Agency, etc. are investigating the cyber attack.

”This will not be the first ransomware attempt. It will not be the last. It is for these entities like they say in the context of terrorism, you have to be right all the time and they can be successful only one time, so we have to be on guard. We have to make sure that our systems and processes are safe and secure. Especially in the era of intensifying digitisation of our economy and of our businesses and activities,” Chandrasekhar said.

Meanwhile, internet services at the AIIMS continued to be blocked as per the recommendations of the investigating agencies.

Patient care services including outpatient, laboratory, inpatient and emergency, etc. are operating in manual mode.

On Tuesday, AIIMS authorities informed that the eHospital data has been restored on the servers. They said that the network is being sanitised before the services can be restored.

The process is taking some time due to the volume of data and a large number of servers/computers for the hospital services. Measures are being taken for…

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Five Defendants Indicted in a Conspiracy to Distribute Child Pornography | USAO-SDFL

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Miami, Florida – A federal grand jury in West Palm Beach has charged five men with one count of conspiracy to distribute child pornography and multiple counts of distribution and solicitation of child pornography. 

Anthony Wayne Santiago, 28, of Novi, MI; Jacob Dominic VanDyke, 25, of Muskegon, MI; Johnathan Scott Fleak, 32, of Pryor, OK; Aaron Ray Iuliano, 27, of Ravenna, OH; and Michael Paul Gianfrancesco, 39, of Livingston, TN, were members of a chat room predicated on the distribution of pornography of children under the age of 13 years.

According to the indictment, from September to October 2021, the five defendants entered and participated in a private online chat.  These defendants all distributed and or solicited child pornography amongst more than 50 other individuals.

Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and Ric Bradshaw, Sheriff, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO), made the announcement.

HSI Miami and PBSO investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Schiller is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about the Project Safe Childhood initiative and for information regarding Internet safety, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

An indictment contains mere allegations and defendants are innocent unless found guilty in a court of law.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-80127.

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Iranian nationals charged in alleged ransomware conspiracy | WKHM-AM

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Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images

(NEWARK, N.J.) — Three Iranian nationals attempted to hack into hundreds of computers in the U.S. and around the world, demanding, and sometimes getting, a ransom, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

The four-count grand jury indictment returned in Newark federal court charged the trio with hacking conspiracy, two counts of computer hacking and a count of computer extortion over an alleged ransomware conspiracy that targeted a range of organizations and critical infrastructure sectors such as healthcare centers, power companies and transportation services inside the U.S. and abroad.

Mansour Ahmadi, Ahmad Aghda, and Amir Ravari hacked into hundreds of computers inside the U.S. and around the world by often exploiting known vulnerabilities in network devices or software programs, the indictment said.

Once they gained access to an organization or company’s software, they would use a program known as BitLocker to encrypt data on their victims’ systems and demand a ransom either by threatening to release stolen data or keeping the data encrypted unless they were paid — at times making demands for hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the court filing.

The three men would often send their demands to office printers. Prosecutors detailed some of the correspondence they had with their victims. Some of those targeted include a domestic violence center, which Khatibi is alleged to have extorted $13,000 from, a housing authority, which he demanded $500,000 ransom from, and the computer systems of a U.S. township and county, the indictment said.

The indictment did not allege involvement by the government of Iran. Instead, the three demanded the money be paid to themselves, it said, although a U.S. official told reporters the Iranian government’s lax laws could share the blame for failing go after actors who engage in this type of alleged conspiracy. The official said all three men are still believed to be within Iran and have not been arrested, and acknowledged it’s unlikely any will see the inside of a U.S. courtroom.

Accompanying the announcement of the indictment, the FBI will release a new joint cybersecurity bulletin…

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Eight Sarasota Conspiracy Theories That Range From the Very Absurd to the Very Real

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The anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks leads many to reexamine one of the most significant events in modern American history, and many Americans believe that, 21 years later, our government is still not telling the full truth about what happened that day. Conspiratorial thinking has exploded, and become a mainstream phenomenon.

But to be called a “conspiracy theorist” is no compliment. If you are accused of being one, you are a tinfoil hat-wearing, schizophrenic paranoiac who believes in lizard people and a flat Earth.

This might be a little unfair. History shows us that governments and shadowy networks have conspired to illicit and nefarious ends. From the Iran-Contra scandal to oil companies hiding data about climate change and CIA-funded mind control programs, real conspiracies abound. And what is a conspiracy anyway? The legal definition is “an agreement between two or more people to commit an illegal act, along with an intent to achieve the agreement’s goal.” That’s pretty broad. What doesn’t fall under that rubric?

By that very loose definition, Sarasota is filled with conspiracies that go back more than a century and, these days, in the time of loony politics and social media, we’ve landed on the national radar. A New York magazine article dubbed our beach town the “Conspiracy Coast,” while Vice wrote a story calling Sarasota “the Conspiracy Capital of the United States.” The Sarasota Herald-Tribune’s Chris Anderson goes even further, claiming Sarasota County “has somehow become the Conspiracy Capital of the World.”

Are we really a hub for conspiracies? Is there something in the water? Or is it the white quartz crystal sand? 

Here are eight common conspiracy theories that involve Sarasota—ranging from the very absurd to the very real.

9/11

Conspiracies are born out of coincidences, so we’ll start with the big one—9/11. Sarasota has a bizarre number of connections to this defining moment in world history, and we still don’t know the whole truth about what really went on here leading up to that fateful day.

Sarasota was destined to be in the 9/11 spotlight because President George W. Bush was reading to a classroom of…

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