IT Services Giant Admits $42m Fallout from Ransomware Attack
Atento case highlights the costs that can stem from serious breaches
Ransomware encrypts or steals data to disrupt operations and extort victims, making backups, access controls, and incident response essential.
Search across headline titles and summaries.
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.
Atento case highlights the costs that can stem from serious breaches
Ransomware gang claims responsibility for attack on Partnership HealthPlan
Cyber Division’s assistant director says impact of ransomware has “grown to dangerous proportions”
UK financial services firms hit by breaches and ransomware
Man worked for DirectConnection cybercrime forum
Reports to ICO top 600 in just a year