Virginia city claimed to be attacked by BianLian ransomware

The City of Waynesboro in Virginia had its official network portal claimed to be compromised by the BianLian ransomware operation, according to Augusta Free Press. BianLian noted in a post on its data leak site that it was able to exfiltrate 350GB worth of data from Waynesboro's network, including fileserver data and public relations documents, as well as internal police station fileserver files, which consist of criminal investigations, internal files, staff members' personal data, reports, and manuals. Despite being relatively new in the ransomware landscape, BianLian has targeting all industries using typical ransomware tactics that involve data theft prior to device encryption, said Emsisoft Threat Analyst Brett Callow, who noted concern on the group's interest in police data. "Some attacks on police departments have resulted in prosecutions being dropped due to lost evidence. In one case, the hackers even threatened to release information about police informants to the people they were informing on," Callow added.