A Texas company that sells software that cities and states use to display results on election night was hit by ransomware last week, the latest of nearly a thousand such attacks over the past year against small towns, big cities and the contractors who run their voting systems. From a report: Many of the attacks are conducted by Russian criminal groups, some with shady ties to President Vladimir V. Putin’s intelligence services. But the attack on Tyler Technologies, which continued on Friday night with efforts by outsiders to log into its clients’ systems around the country, was particularly rattling less than 40 days before the election. While Tyler does not actually tally votes, it is used by election officials to aggregate and report them in at least 20 places around the country — making it exactly the kind of soft target that the Department of Homeland Security, the F.B.I. and United States Cyber Command worry could be struck by anyone trying to sow chaos and uncertainty on election night.

Tyler would not describe the attack in detail. It initially appeared to be an ordinary ransomware attack, in which data is made inaccessible unless the victim pays the ransom, usually in harder-to-trace cryptocurrencies. But then some of Tyler’s clients — the company would not say which ones — saw outsiders trying to gain access to their systems on Friday night, raising fears that the attackers might be out for something more than just a quick profit. That has been the fear haunting federal officials for a year now: that in the days leading up to the election, or in its aftermath, ransomware groups will try to freeze voter registration data, election poll books or the computer systems of the secretaries of the state who certify election results. With only 37 days before the election, federal investigators still do not have a clear picture of whether the ransomware attacks clobbering American networks are purely criminal acts, seeking a quick payday, or Trojan horses for more nefarious Russian interference. But they have not had much success in stopping them. In just the first two weeks of September, another seven American government entities have been hit with ransomware and their data stolen. “The chance of a local government not being hit while attempting to manage the upcoming and already ridiculously messy election would seem to be very slim,” said Brett Callow, a threat analyst at Emsisoft, a security firm.

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Source: Slashdot – Ransomware Attacks Take On New Urgency Ahead of Vote

Universal Health Services, one of the largest healthcare providers in the U.S., has been hit by a ransomware attack. “Looks like another case of ransomware at over 400 hospital locations,” writes Slashdot reader nickwinlund77. “They’ve had to go back to pen & paper for handling forms.” TechCrunch reports: The attack hit UHS systems early on Sunday morning, according to two people with direct knowledge of the incident, locking computers and phone systems at several UHS facilities across the country, including in California and Florida. One of the people said the computer screens changed with text that referenced the “shadow universe,” consistent with the Ryuk ransomware. “Everyone was told to turn off all the computers and not to turn them on again,” the person said. “We were told it will be days before the computers are up again.”

It’s not immediately known what impact the ransomware attack is having on patient care, or how widespread the issue is. UHS published a statement on Monday, saying its IT network “is currently offline, due to an IT security issue.” “We implement extensive IT security protocols and are working diligently with our IT security partners to restore IT operations as quickly as possible. In the meantime, our facilities are using their established back-up processes including offline documentation methods. Patient care continues to be delivered safely and effectively,” the statement said. “No patient or employee data appears to have been accessed, copied or otherwise compromised,” it added.

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Source: Slashdot – Healthcare Giant UHS Hit By Ransomware Attack, Sources Say

Apple and Epic met in a virtual court hearing on Monday to debate whether Fortnite should be allowed to remain in Apple’s App Store while the two fight an even bigger battle over whether Apple is violating federal antitrust law. From a report: California Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said didn’t issue any update to her previous ruling, which upheld Apple’s ban on Fortnite while the antitrust case is ongoing. Instead she said the companies should expect to hear from her in writing. Rogers said that it’s likely that the case, which she added was “the frontier of antitrust law,” will be heard in July 2021. She recommended a trial by jury in order that the final judgement reached would be more likely stand up to appeal, although said it’s up to Apple or Epic to request this.

[…] In court on Monday, Rogers seemed less than impressed with the arguments put forward by Epic’s legal team. She said that in the gaming industry, of which Epic is a part, it was standard practice for platforms to take 30% commission, as Apple does. She challenged Epic over its decision to circumvent Apple’s policy in spite of its explicit contractual relations with the company, saying the company had “lied about it by omission.” “You were not forthright,” she said. “You were told you couldn’t do it, and you did. There’s an old saying, a rose by any other name is still a rose […] There are plenty of people in the public could consider you guys heroes for what you did, but it’s still not honest.”

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Source: Slashdot – Apple’s Battle With Epic Over Fortnite Could Reach Jury Trial Next July