Best Infosec-Related Long Reads of the Week, 2/4/23

The line Conti wouldn't cross, The Kremlin spies on Telegram?, Hackney Council's ransomware pain, Spyware threatens democracy, Pig butchering's UK nexus, Truckers' surveillance woes, more

Metacurity is pleased to offer our free and paid subscribers this weekly digest of the best long-form infosec pieces and related articles that we couldn’t properly fit into our daily crush of news. So tell us what you think, and feel free to share your favorite long reads via email at info@metacurity.com. We’ll gladly credit you with a hat tip. Happy reading!

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When Hackers Hobbled Ireland’s Hospitals, They Took Themselves Down, Too

Bloomberg’s Ryan Gallagher explains how a life-threatening ransomware attack on Ireland’s public health system in May 2021, which compromised 54 hospitals and 4,000 other medical facilities, the largest ever such attack on a health care system, forced the formerly ruthless Russia-based Conti ransomware gang to drop its $20 million ransom demand and discover a line it would not cross.

At the time of the HSE hack, Conti didn’t have a record of restraint. The FBI estimated that as of January 2022 the group had carried out attack…