What Links Hospital Outages, Crypto Botnets, and Sneaky Zip Files? A Ransomware Chaos – Source: securityboulevard.com

A massive nonprofit hospital network in Ohio, 14 medical centers strong, brought to its knees by cybercriminals—likely the gang behind the Interlock ransomware. Elective surgeries were canceled. Outpatient appointments paused. And to make it worse? Scammers posing as hospital staff started calling patients asking for their credit card numbers.

“Your network was compromised, and we have secured your most vital files.” —Actual ransom note from the Interlock group

If you think ransomware is just an IT issue, think again. It’s messing with hospitals, finance firms, and even your smart fridge. Here’s what jumped out from the latest threat intel brief (you can also grab the full report here):

1. The Interlock Ransomware Crew Just Went Prime Time

Kettering Health didn’t officially confirm it, but all signs point to the Interlock ransomware gang. They’re new on the scene (as in, popped up last fall), but already flexing hard: over 30 known victims and counting.

And it’s not just file-locking and ransom notes. This group does recon, installs remote access trojans (RATs), and threatens to leak stolen data unless they get paid. Real charming bunch.

Hospitals can’t afford downtime. Lives literally hang in the balance. A two-day outage isn’t just an inconvenience—it’s a patient safety crisis. And when scammers piggyback on the chaos to phish patients? That’s salt in the wound.

Access Report | Know Why Forrester Rates us ‘Superior’ in Healthcare Security

2. PyTorch and Chrome Vulnerabilities: Your Code Just Became a Backdoor

Two major “drop everything and patch now” vulnerabilities showed up:

• PyTorch (yep, the machine learning framework everyone’s using): Attackers can run malicious code just by you loading the wrong model. Even if you’re using weights_only=True. Oops.
• Google Chrome’s V8 Engine: One nasty out-of-bounds write lets bad actors execute code and potentially hijack your machine.

These bugs are like trapdoors in your basement—quiet, invisible, and leading straight into your network. Developers and IT teams need to patch fast. The PyTorch bug alone scored a 9.3 out of 10 in severity. That’s the kind of grade you don’t want.

3. Remcos RAT Is Back—and It’s Sneakier Than Ever

Remcos RAT (Remote Access Trojan) is showing up in fileless attacks. That means it runs entirely in memory, dodging your antivirus like a ninja. Delivered through ZIP files pretending to be tax documents, the real magic happens when the victim opens a shortcut (LNK) file. Next thing you know, your system is calling out to some shady domain like readysteaurants[.]com (yes, really) and streaming your keystrokes, screenshots, and clipboard data.

Fileless malware doesn’t leave a lot of digital footprints. Traditional security tools won’t catch it. This one’s perfect for data theft, espionage, and slowly worming into business systems—especially small and medium fintech firms with limited defenses.

4. PumaBot Is Hunting Your IoT Devices—and It’s Not Just Mining Crypto

This targets Linux-based IoT devices—think security cameras, smart sensors, industrial controllers. Instead of scanning the internet, it pulls a hit list from a command server and goes after them with brute-force SSH attacks.

Once in, it pretends to be part of the system (e.g., calling itself redis.service), survives reboots, and mines cryptocurrency. And it installs a rootkit that steals your SSH credentials by silently recording logins.

Your IoT devices probably aren’t behind strong firewalls. They might be the weakest link in your security chain. And PumaBot knows it.

5. Scammers Are Getting Smarter—and More Human

Back to Kettering Health. Amid the chaos of the outage, people started getting calls from fake hospital reps asking for card payments. Now, this wasn’t confirmed to be part of the original attack, but it’s a smart move from a criminal’s perspective: strike while the iron (and confusion) is hot.

Human psychology is a weapon. When people are stressed or scared, they’re more likely to hand over info. Social engineering isn’t going anywhere—it’s just getting better.

What Can You Do Right Now?

Here’s the low-hanging fruit:

• Adopt zero trust mechanisms to stop lateral movement, using best-in-class microsegmentation tools immediately, especially those that are hyper-focused on stopping the proliferation of breaches.
• Patch everything—especially Chrome, PyTorch, and anything in your stack running Microsoft Office or Commvault.
• Harden your healthcare systems—monitor medical IoT devices and keep ransomware playbooks up to date.
• Lock down PowerShell and look for abnormal usage. Remcos thrives in the dark.
• Audit IoT logins and systemd services. If something smells fishy, it probably is.
• Educate your people. No, really. That “we’ll never ask for credit card info on a call” script could save your customers and your brand.

Want the Full Picture?

This blog just scratched the surface. The full threat intel brief digs into every corner—who’s attacking what, how they’re getting in, and what’s at risk if you don’t move fast. From ransomware gangs like Interlock to stealthy players like PumaBot, it’s all in there, with the CVEs, attack chains, and mitigation steps you need to stay one step ahead.

Grab the report and see the full attack flow.

Whether you’re trying to patch fast, hunt threats smarter, or just need help figuring out where to begin, we’re here to help. Get in touch with us.

The post What Links Hospital Outages, Crypto Botnets, and Sneaky Zip Files? A Ransomware Chaos appeared first on ColorTokens.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from ColorTokens authored by ColorTokens Editorial Team. Read the original post at: https://colortokens.com/blogs/ransomware-attack-threat-intel/