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 runaway success of an upstart ransomware outfit called "Dark Angels" may well influence the cyberattack landscape for years to come.
Law firms make the perfect target for extortion, so it's no wonder that ransomware attackers target them and demand multimillion dollar ransoms.
The prolific ransomware group has shifted away from phishing as the method of entry into corporate networks, and is now using initial access brokers as well as its own tools to optimize its most recent attacks.
With sufficient privileges in Active Directory, attackers only have to create an "ESX Admins" group in the targeted domain and add a user to it.