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.
Fashion Police chipping in on the bounty related to costliest strain of ransomware on record The US government is putting a face on a claimed member of the infamous Conti ransomware group as part of a $10 million reward for information about five of the gang's crew.…
Advanced's infrastructure still down and out, recovery to take weeks or more Advanced, the MSP forced to shut down some of its servers last week after identifying an "issue" with its infrastructure hosting products, has confirmed a ransomware attack and says recovery will be in the order of weeks.…
Most organizations don’t have the financial resources necessary to address ransomware and other cyberattacks, BlackBerry says Black Hat Many organizations are increasingly unprepared to deal with the skyrocketing costs of a ransomware attacks, at a time when the number of incidents and the payments demanded by cybercriminals are rising rapidly.…
Plus, spoiler alert: ransomware is gonna get a lot worse Black Hat video It turns out that ex-CIA chief information security officers don't spill secrets at bars in Vegas. Or via Zoom, while pretending to be at a Black Hat cocktail party.…
Stop ransomware with Zero Trust security networks in place Webinar Faced with relentless cyberattacks organizations need the kind of defenses usually reserved for small states. And everything that Zero Trust principles can pull into play will help safeguard against the nimble nastiness of the dark actors intent on doing harm.…
Voice-phished their way in, but Switchzilla claims no damage done Cisco disclosed on Wednesday that its corporate network was accessed by cyber-criminals in May after an employee's personal Google account was compromised – an act a ransomware gang named "Yanluowang" has now claimed as its work.…
Attack origins point to April 2021 first strike on Japanese target The Maui ransomware that has been used against US healthcare operations has been linked to Andariel, a North Korean state-sponsored threat with links to the notorious Lazarus Group.…
Being the money launderer for North Korea’s Lazarus Group comes at a price The US Treasury Department is levying sanctions against Tornado Cash, a notorious cryptocurrency mixer that it says has been used by threat groups like ransomware gang Lazarus to launder stolen digital assets.…