News Wrap: New Ransomware Extortion Tactics, Contact-Tracing App Security Worries

Threatpost editors discuss the top news stories of the week ended May 15, including: Recent ransomware attacks, including ones targeting healthcare giant Magellan, the IT office that supports Texas appellate courts and judicial agencies, and a popular law firm that works with several A-list celebrities, including Lady Gaga, Drake and Madonna. "Double extortion" methods being increasingly used by ransomware actors - and new research that found paying a ransom to unlock systems can actually cost companies more financially than recovering data themselves in the long run. The state of Utah announcing it has settled on a contact-tracing mobile app that collects detailed user location information to track the spread of COVID-19 among citizens – eschewing the API model proposed by Apple and Google in April. The roadmap for a COVID-19 contact-tracing app, to be rolled out by the UK's National Health Service (NHS), thrust into the spotlight thanks to sensitive documents being leaked via a public Google Drive link.