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.
Weeks after it breached the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Vice Society ransomware group is threatening to leak the stolen data, unless they get paid.
While ransomware seems stalled, business email compromise (BEC) attacks continue to make profits from the ProxyShell and Log4j vulnerabilities, nearly doubling in the latest quarter.
Survey of over 2,000 IT pros revealed that a quarter either don't know or don't think Microsoft 365 data can be affected by ransomware.
The previously identified ransomware builder has veered in an entirely new direction, targeting consumers and business of all sizes by exploiting known CVEs through brute-forced and/or stolen SSH keys.
Illumio Endpoint extends zero trust segmentation to see risk and set policy across macOS and Windows devices.
Using its "Exmatter" tool to corrupt rather than encrypt files signals a new direction for financially motivated cybercrime activity, researchers say.