MedStar continues its recovery from the ransomware infestation it suffered, apparently a server-side Samsam infection. Patient care has continued, first with paper backups, then returning to normal as full access to EHRs is restored. US-CERT issues a kind of scorecard for currently circulating ransomware variants.
Symantec reports that 2015 saw a 73% decline in banking Trojans, but this seems accounted for by the increased attention criminals are paying to financial institutions themselves instead of working the banks' customers.
Some other forms of high-payoff crime warrant caution. Fraudulent wire transfers are hitting various sectors, and these are particularly dangerous since they can prove impossible for a business to recover from. And law firm client data—especially merger-and-acquisition data held by such firms, are highly sought by gangs interested in fraudulent front-running stock trades.
Check Point discloses the "SideStepper" vulnerability, an iOS bug whose exploitation can install malicious code in iPads and iPhones. Because SideStepper bypasses iOS 9's restrictions on enterprise app deployment, exploitation undermines mobile device management.
In industry news, rumors of assistance Cellebrite rendered the FBI in the San Bernardino iPhone investigation draw analyst attention to the company.
The FBI is helping Arkansas prosecutors gain access to an iPhone 6 and an iPod investigators think may hold evidence in a murder case. But the Bureau's principal interest in gaining access to encrypted devices remains drug prosecution, not murder or terrorism.
Anyone thinking the crypto wars a provincial American dust-up should read former Foreign Secretary William Hague's remarks in the UK.