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.
Luna, Black Basta add to rapidly growing list of malware tools targeted at virtual machines deployed on VMware's bare-metal hypervisor technology.
Identify your business's security posture and head off ransomware attacks with third-party risk management and vendor security assessments.
Law enforcement hopes that retuning ransom payments to impacted businesses will demonstrate that working with the feds following a cybersecurity breach is "good business."
The group has become the new face of ransomware, taking advantage of vulnerabilities and poor encryption.
The gang's members have moved into different criminal activities, and could regroup once law-enforcement attention has simmered down a bit, researchers say.
The conventional wisdom that virtual container environments were somehow immune from malware and hackers has been upended.
Telecom and business services see the highest level of attacks, but the two most common ransomware families, which continue to be LockBit and Conti, are seen less often.