New Gang Takes 344GB From a Med School. Bill Gates Just Called It.
A ransomware gang that did not exist three months ago claims it stole 344 gigabytes from one of America’s biggest medical schools. It already has around 49 victims. The number of crews that can hit your business keeps growing. This week: the attack on the University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine, a fake Boston biotech conference built to spread malware, and one of the largest law firms in the country talked into giving an attacker access to files containing Social Security numbers.
*The tools got cheap. Your trust became the target.*
Bryan Hornung, Randy Bryan, and Reginald Andre break down what these stories mean for executives, owners, and operators who don’t have time to track cyber news but can’t afford to be blindsided.
A crew calling itself Booba claims it stole 344 gigabytes from the UIC College of Medicine. Booba did not exist before late July, and researchers believe it is an older operation called Frag under a new name. The University confirmed the attack and that some data was stolen. It restored its systems and kept patient care running. The warning: a working ransomware brand can launch in weeks. Bill Gates warned this month that the most imminent AI threat is not rogue machines. It is bad people with the latest tools and nobody guarding the door.
The Boston biotech conference does not exist. Security firm Proofpoint found that BioTold, a polished event site listing geneticist George Church as a keynote and Thermo Fisher as a sponsor, is a fake built to get professionals to download malware. This is an entire fake institution, not one sketchy email. In August, the firm IRONSCALES caught the same tactic targeting a drug company. Its malicious conference invites passed every technical email check because the criminals owned and correctly configured their own sending domain. The lesson applies to every industry: if the only proof an event is real is the event’s own website, you have proven nothing.
We close with Holland & Knight, one of the largest law firms in America. The firm disclosed that an attacker used social engineering to get remote access, exposing files containing Social Security numbers. Nobody broke through a firewall. Somebody was talked into saying yes. It is part of a 2026 wave that has also hit Squire Patton Boggs and other major firms. If you use outside counsel, your sensitive data is sitting in a law firm that likely never went through your vendor security review. These breaches have drawn class-action lawsuits within days. Privilege is not a security control. Put your law firm through a vendor security review.
• A brand-new ransomware gang, Booba, claims 344GB from the University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine
• A fake Boston biotech conference, BioTold, is really a Proofpoint-flagged malware trap using George Church and Thermo Fisher’s names
• Holland & Knight, a top US law firm, got socially engineered and exposed Social Security numbers
• Why Bill Gates says the most imminent AI threat is bad people with cheap tools, not rogue machines
• Why “it passed our email filters” no longer means a message is safe
• What every business owner should ask their law firm and vendors this week
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