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.
Halcyon's Jon Miller joins Dark Reading's Terry Sweeney at Dark Reading News Desk during RSA Conference to discuss how to mitigate ransomware.
Sophos' John Shier joins Dark Reading's Terry Sweeney at Dark Reading News Desk during RSA Conference to discuss the ransomware problem.
Organizations can no longer rely on traditional responses to ransomware.
The new ransomware strain Black Basta is now actively targeting VMware ESXi servers in an ongoing campaign, encrypting files inside a targeted volumes folder.
The innovative ransomware targets NAS devices, has a multitiered payment and extortion scheme as well as a flexible configuration, and takes a heavily automated approach.
Crackdowns are driving down ransomware profits, and analysts see signs that operators are pivoting to business email compromise attacks, security researcher warned.