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Stay updated on cyber extortion trends: threats, prevention tips, and incident responses. Protect your data with the latest info on digital ransom tactics.

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Extortion is coercion through threats: an attacker demands money or another concession while threatening harm if the victim refuses. In cybersecurity, this commonly involves encrypting systems and demanding payment for recovery, stealing data and threatening to publish it (often called double extortion), or threatening service disruption. The threatened harm may be real, exaggerated, or based on data the attacker did not actually obtain; payment does not guarantee data deletion, secrecy, or restoration.

Security teams should treat an extortion demand as a potential incident: preserve evidence, isolate affected systems, determine whether data was accessed, and involve legal and privacy specialists where notification or regulatory duties may apply. Offline, tested backups can reduce leverage from encryption, but they do not address stolen information. Reviewing exposed remote services, credentials, and unpatched internet-facing systems can help contain the access path, while threat intelligence may help assess the attacker’s claims and identify related activity.

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US Treasury Says Crypto Exchange Helped Launder $100 Million for Ransomware GangsThe U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned Thursday a Russian founder and co-owners of the Garantex cryptocurrency exchange in a bid to tighten methods criminal hackers use to launder extortion money and Kremlin sanctions busting. Regulators also sanctioned Garantex successor Grinex.

More from Bank Info Security 15 Aug 2025, 10:30 a.m. America Cryptocurrency Extortion Money Laundering Ransomware Russia Sanctions

Cryptocurrency Tracing Suggests Group Is Rebrand of Russian-Speaking BlackCat GroupEven lesser-known ransomware groups haul in serious extortion cash - although in the ransomware world, little is what it seems. Take relative newcomer Embargo, which appears to be a rebrand of, or successor to, the notorious BlackCat group, also known as Alphv.

More from Bank Info Security 14 Aug 2025, 8:30 a.m. BlackCat Cryptocurrency Extortion Ransom Ransomware Russia

An ongoing data extortion campaign targeting Salesforce customers may soon turn its attention to financial services and technology service providers, as ShinyHunters and Scattered Spider appear to be working hand in hand, new findings show

More from The Hacker News 13 Aug 2025, 4:20 a.m. Credentials Cybercrime Database Extortion Finance Scattered Spider Service Provider Theft