I've always had what I would consider a hacker mindset, a curiosity to take things apart, understand them, and use that knowledge to solve problems. That mindset took me on a circuitous route into the cybersecurity industry; after being kicked out of high school for hacking computer systems, I worked a range of jobs, managing office supply companies by day and cracking Wi-Fi networks by night until I started a Digital Forensics degree which led me to the world of security research.
"Shortly after access was terminated, we began receiving extortion demands. The criminals threatened to distribute materials from both the February 2025 incident and the recent incident to media outlets and on social media if we did not comply. We will not pay these criminals," Percoco stated.
This attack is just shedding light on the fact that you're even more vulnerable outside of the office, said Don Aviv, CEO of Interfor International, a security consultancy.
"These incidents involve the intentional use of deceptive or illegal practices to fraudulently obtain money, assets, or information from individuals or institutions, and include actions carried out over cyber channels."
Rhyne's attack involved unauthorized remote desktop sessions, deletion of network administrator accounts, and changing of passwords, showcasing significant security vulnerabilities.
Hoang: My background sits at the intersection of enterprise IT, data protection, and cybersecurity. I've spent much of my career working with CIOs and CISOs on resilience - how organizations protect, recover, and govern their most critical data in the face of cyber threats, outages, and operational risk. Today, as CIO at Commvault, I see security not as a standalone function, but as a core business capability.