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.
For more than a year, North Korean hackers have been running a ransomware operation called HolyGhost, attacking small businesses in various countries. [...]
For more than a year, North Korean hackers have been running a ransomware operation called HolyGhost, attacking small businesses in various countries. [...]
A new ransomware operation has been launched under the name 'Lilith,' and it has already posted its first victim on a data leak site created to support double-extortion attacks. [...]
Game publishing giant Bandai Namco has confirmed that they suffered a cyberattack that may have resulted in the theft of customers' personal data. [...]
Two ransomware gangs and a data extortion group have adopted a new strategy to force victim companies to pay threat actors to not leak stolen data. [...]
Maastricht University (UM), a Dutch university with more than 22,000 students, said last week that it has recovered the ransom paid after a ransomware attack that hit its network in December 2019. [...]