Earlier this month on October 7th, in Hall county which is 1 hour north of Atlanta, Georgia, they had a ransomware attack that breached their election infrastructure. This attack impacted their voter signature database and precinct map. Hall county is still trying to recover their systems while in the middle of this election season.
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that locks up a victim's computer and renders it unusable until the victim pays off the attacker, frequently in bitcoin. CNN reports that this ransomware attack does not seem to be linked to Iranian threat actors but we suspect the attack could be a form of Robbin Hood ransomware. The Robbin Hood ransomware attacks have been targeting election and university systems this year. Often time times bad actors are using fraudulent emails that contain malicious links or attachments to install ransomware onto networks.
To avoid this from happening Tiffany Ricks, the founder and CEO at HacWare says, "People should stay vigilant when using email and especially when using text message communication. Threat actors are impersonating election campaigns and asking for donations and sending links to your personal devices. Please avoid these fraudulent messages better known as phishing attacks".
To automate awareness and combat these attacks we highly suggest using HacWare. To learn more about how we can put your awareness on autopilot go to www.hacware.com. If you are a managed security service provider, we would love to automate your security education services, click here to learn more about our partner program.