Two-year-old Bucbi ransomware is making a comeback, with new targeted attacks and a new brute force technique. Researchers at Palo Alto Networks said they spotted the ransomware recently infecting a Windows Server demanding a 5 bitcoins (or $2,320) ransom. Researchers report the ransomware is no longer randomly seeking victims, as it did two years ago, but...

A Twitter business partner, whose service sifts through Twitter’s so-called fire hose of tweets as well as data from other sources to ascertain patterns in breaking news events, has been told to no longer provide its services to the U.S. intelligence community. The Wall Street Journal on Sunday reported that the arrangement between Dataminr—Twitter owns...

Mike Mimoso, Chris Brook, and Threatpost’s newest reporter, Tom Spring, discuss the week in news, including a first hand account of an online casino’s experience with a Teslacrypt infection, Brazil shutting down WhatsApp, and attackers mining an ADP portal for W-2s. Download: Threatpost_News_Wrap_May_6_2016.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves

The Supreme Court is moving to expand the FBI’s hacking authority with Criminal Rule 41, an amendment to federal criminal procedures that makes it easier for the FBI to access computers remotely when their locations are unknown. Privacy watchdogs are blasting the proposed change saying it would allow the government to hack into phones and...

In a vote of 419-0 on Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Email Privacy Act that would require the government to obtain a warrant in order to access digital communications stored in the cloud. Privacy advocates cheered the victory and said it was a win for U.S. citizens and companies. The Email Privacy Act (H.R....

Hackers sympathetic to ISIS may lack the funding and talent of government-sponsored hackers, but they merit attention because of their promotion of physical violence and ability to incite others via social media to target individuals or groups. A report today by security company Flashpoint points out that while these groups are not official members of...

An obscure Windows feature known as hotpatching, missing in the OS since the introduction of Windows 8, is a preferred tool used by a resourced attack group called Platinum that was uncovered by Microsoft. The group has carried out targeted attacks in South and Southeast Asia since at least 2009, focusing primarily on government interests,...

Was the Federal Bureau of Investigation justified in paying over $1.3 million for a hacking tool that opened the iPhone 5c of the San Bernardino shooter? For some in the security community the answer is a resounding yes. For others, the answer is not so clear-cut. FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday the agency...

Apple’s latest transparency report published on Wednesday shows a big increase in the number of law enforcement and government requests for account and device data. Publication of the report comes on the heels of the latest chapter in the Apple-FBI tussle over encryption and privacy. Tuesday’s hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee dredged up...

Messaging firm Viber is adding end-to-end encryption for 711 million of its users, becoming the latest tech firm to embrace encryption on an massive scale. Making the move even more provocative is the fact Viber is owned by a Japanese conglomerate and operates out of Israel – making it immune to existing and any upcoming U.S....