Ransomware encrypts or steals data to disrupt operations and extort victims, making backups, access controls, and incident response essential.
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Background for this topic.
Ransomware is malware used to deny access to systems or data, usually by encrypting files and demanding payment for decryption. Many operations also steal sensitive information and threaten to publish it, so an attack can create both an availability crisis and a privacy or disclosure risk. Initial access may involve phishing, stolen credentials, exposed remote services, or exploitation of unpatched vulnerabilities; attackers may then move through the network before deploying the payload.
Defenses should combine vulnerability management, phishing-resistant authentication where practical, endpoint and network monitoring, and backups that are isolated from routine administrator access and regularly tested for recovery. Organizations should also limit privileges and segment critical systems to reduce the blast radius. An incident requires rapid containment, preservation of forensic evidence, restoration from known-good backups, and assessment of notification, legal, and regulatory obligations. Threat intelligence can help identify relevant criminal infrastructure or tactics, but it does not replace sound access control, patching, detection, and recovery practices.
The Co-op cyberattack is far worse than initially reported, with the company now confirming that data was stolen for a significant number of current and past customers. [...]
A 36-year-old Yemeni national, who is believed to be the developer and primary operator of 'Black Kingdom' ransomware, has been indicted by the United States for conducting 1,500 attacks on Microsoft Exchange servers. [...]
A Ukrainian national has been extradited from Spain to the United States to face charges over allegedly conducting Nefilim ransomware attacks against companies. [...]
Ongoing outages at British retail giant Marks & Spencer are caused by a ransomware attack believed to be conducted by a hacking collective known as "Scattered Spider" BleepingComputer has learned from multiple sources. [...]
Hitachi Vantara, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate Hitachi, was forced to take servers offline over the weekend to contain an Akira ransomware attack. [...]