Chicago Firm’s Employees Accused of Helping ALPHV/BlackCat Ransomware Group

In a recent federal indictment, two employees of the cybersecurity firm DigitalMint were accused of secretly collaborating with one of the world’s most prominent ransomware gangs — and leveraging their positions in a sophisticated extortion scheme. Per the Chicago Sun-Times...
November 4, 2025

What Are Double-Extortion and Triple-Extortion Ransomware Attacks?

Double-extortion ransomware is an attack where criminals both encrypt your files and steal (exfiltrate) your data. Triple-extortion simply adds a third layer of pressure such as a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack or harassment to your clients or staff. It’s simply...
November 1, 2025

What Is the CVE-2024-1086 Linux Flaw (And Why Is It Used in Ransomware?)

A decade-old bug in the Linux kernel is now being actively used by ransomware groups to gain full root control of a server, according to a new warning from CISA.  This vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-1086, is exceptionally dangerous because it...
October 31, 2025

How Important is Ventilation for Hard Drive and SSD Longevity?

Electronic components generate heat, and ventilation is certainly a factor in the long-term health of your computer. Most modern computer cases are designed with adequate airflow, but a failure in ventilation can lead to catastrophic data loss.  When internal fans...
October 27, 2025

When Is Ransomware Recovery Possible?

In 2024, about 59% of organizations were hit by ransomware, per a report from Sophos — and while that number is shocking, it’s actually slightly lower than the numbers for 2023.  For bad actors, ransomware is a lucrative business, and...
October 24, 2025

The Top 5 User Errors That Lead to Lost Crypto

Occasionally, people lose crypto due to catastrophic blockchain failures or multi-layer attacks from sophisticated hackers — but preventable user error is far, far more common. For various reasons, people fail to treat crypto like real currency, and given the high...
October 24, 2025

Signs Your SSD Is About to Fail: 4 Warning Signals to Watch For

Yes, your Solid-State Drive (SSD) can and will eventually fail. No storage device is perfect — and while SSDs don’t have any moving parts (depending on how you define “moving parts,” if you want to get technical), it’s still susceptible...
October 23, 2025

Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs) and Data Recovery

Data can often be recovered from a self-encrypting drive (SED), but the can be complex. Successful recovery rarely involves “breaking” the encryption, which is — by design — virtually impossible.  Instead, engineers must repair the underlying issue that is preventing...
October 22, 2025

Data Recovery for Fire-Damaged RAID Servers: An Overview

Data recovery from fire-damaged RAID servers is frequently possible; each year, we receive several dozen cases (sometimes more, such as when wildfires impacted California business in early 2025), and most cases result in a full or partial recovery. However,...
October 21, 2025

Hard Drive Making Grinding Noises: What to Do Next

A grinding hard drive is a critical data emergency. This noise — which is distinct from the repetitive “click of death” — is the sound of an immediate and severe physical failure. The only safe action is to power it...
October 20, 2025