H-ISAC, Microsoft and Fortra fight ransomware in court>
Health Care IT News – Andrea Fox
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued a court order on March 31 allowing Microsoft, Fortra and the Health Information Sharing & Analysis Center to remove illegal copies of Cobalt Strike so they can no longer be used by ransomware-as-a-service operations, such as Conti and LockBit.

Legacy copies of Fortra’s Cobalt Strike, as well as Microsoft software, have been abused by cybercriminals in their efforts to distribute malware, including ransomware, according to Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit.

But with the court order, the companies will disrupt the cybercriminals’ malicious infrastructure by working with relevant internet service providers and computer emergency readiness teams to take it offline and destroy connection to their victims’ infected computers.

The “cracked” copies of Cobalt Strike have been used to launch destructive attacks, such as those against the Government of Costa Rica and the Irish Health Service Executive, she noted.

Attacks using abused copies of Forta’s and Microsoft’s products have interrupted critical patient care services and cost hospital systems millions of dollars in recovery and repair.
Link: https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/h-isac-microsoft-and-fortra-fight-ransomware-court