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.
Claims on ransomware groups’ data leak sites reached an all-time high in November, with 632 reported victims, according to Corvus Insurance
The US government has sanctioned Sichuan Silence and one of its employees for the mass compromise of firewalls which led to the deployment of malware and ransomware
The utilities sector saw a 42% surge in ransomware incidents over the past year, with groups like Play focusing on targets with IT and OT systems
Artivion has revealed in an SEC filing that it suffered a double-extortion ransomware attack
This new ransomware group is likely a new variant of Babuk, said Cyble threat intelligence analysts
Massachusetts’ Anna Jacques Hospital notifies over 316,000 patients of a data breach a year ago