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.
New ransomware operations continue to be launched this week, with the new Luna ransomware found to be targeting both Windows and VMware ESXi servers. [...]
Digital security giant Entrust has confirmed that it suffered a cyberattack where threat actors breached their network and stole data from internal systems. [...]
Details have emerged on how the Conti ransomware gang breached the Costa Rican government, showing the attack's precision and the speed of moving from initial access to the final stage of encrypting devices. [...]
A threat actor is promoting a new version of their free-to-use 'Redeemer' ransomware builder on hacker forums, offering unskilled threat actors an easy entry to the world of encryption-backed extortion attacks. [...]
The U.S. Department of Justice has announced the seizure of approximately $500,000 in Bitcoin, paid by American health care providers to the operators of the Maui ransomware strain. [...]
A new ransomware family dubbed Luna can be used to encrypt devices running several operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and ESXi systems. [...]
The Knauf Group has announced it has been the target of a cyberattack that has disrupted its business operations, forcing its global IT team to shut down all IT systems to isolate the incident. [...]