Author Archive

Renee Dudley

Renee Dudley is a tech reporter at ProPublica. Before joining ProPublica in 2018, she was a member of the enterprise team at Reuters, where she helped uncover a U.S. higher education admissions system corrupted by systematic cheating on standardized tests. The series was named a 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist in National Reporting.
Digital Government

The Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Hackers Had a Secret Weapon: Self-Promoting Cybersecurity Firms

Five months before DarkSide attacked the Colonial pipeline, two researchers discovered a way to rescue its ransomware victims. Then an antivirus company’s announcement alerted the hackers.

Digital Government

The New Target That Enables Ransomware Hackers to Paralyze Dozens of Towns and Businesses at Once

Cybercriminals are zeroing in on the managed service providers that handle computer systems for local governments and medical clinics.