Microsoft and a group of cybersecurity firms received help from the courts with the massive takedown Thursday of a notorious hacking tool that had been co-opted by cybercriminals to target hospitals and healthcare systems.
Joining forces with cybersecurity firm Fortra and the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Health-ISAC), the firms applied for and received a court order designed to remove bootleg versions of Fortra’s Cobalt Strike software. Last Friday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York awarded the court order to the organizations, enabling them to seize domain names where malicious actors were storing the “cracked” versions of the software.
For years, a malicious version of the tool — initially designed to enable companies to check their cyber defenses — has been manipulated by bad actors launching ransomware attacks on unwitting victims.
Read full article by Nicole Sganga in CBS News here:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/microsoft-court-order-ransomware-hacking-tool-that-targeted-hospitals/