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.
Malware Platform Operators Taket Steps to Obfuscate CodeThreat actors behind malware distribution platform Raspberry Robin worm have shifted tactics to make the malware harder to detect and for researchers to analyze. Hackers deploying Raspberry Robin - often a precursor to a ransomware attack - now use Windows Script Files.
A recent cyberattack on Hoya Corporation was conducted by the 'Hunters International' ransomware operation, which demanded a $10 million ransom for a file decryptor and not to release files stolen during the attack. [...]
Wisconsin Nonprofit Says Attackers Also Tried to Encrypt Systems, But They FailedA Wisconsin nonprofit managed care organization is notifying nearly 534,000 individuals that their protected health information was copied and stolen in a recent attack by a "foreign ransomware gang" that also attempted - but failed - to encrypt the group's IT systems.
Though a municipal agency assures the public that few are affected, hundreds have their data held ransom for $100,000 by the ransomware gang.
Non-profit healthcare service provider Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin (GHC-SCW) has disclosed that a ransomware gang breached its network in January and stole documents containing the personal and medical information of over 500,000 individuals. [...]
We need more than "do-it-yourself" approaches to threats that clearly rise to the level of national security issues.
2023 CL0P Growth Emerging in early 2019, CL0P was first introduced as a more advanced version of its predecessor the ‘CryptoMix’ ransomware, brought about by its owner CL0P ransomware, a cybercrime organisation. Over the years the group remained active with significant campaigns throughout 2020 to 2022. But in 2023 the CL0P ransomware gang took itself to new heights and became one of the
RansomHub Claims It Has 4TBs of Data Stolen by BlackCat in Change Healthcare AttackA second cybercriminal gang - RansomHub - is trying to shake down Change Healthcare's parent company, UnitedHealth Group, and have it pay another ransom for data that an affiliate of ransomware-as-a-service group BlackCat claims to have stolen in February. Is this the latest ruse in a messy attack?
RansomHub, which is speculated to have some connection to ALPHV, has stolen 4TB of sensitive data from the beleaguered healthcare company.
Theories abound over who's truly responsible Change Healthcare is allegedly being extorted by a second ransomware gang, mere weeks after recovering from an ALPHV attack.…
The ransomware industry surged in 2023 as it saw an alarming 55.5% increase in victims worldwide, reaching a staggering 5,070. But 2024 is starting off showing a very different picture. While the numbers skyrocketed in Q4 2023 with 1309 cases, in Q1 2024, the ransomware industry was down to 1,048 cases. This is a 22% decrease in ransomware attacks compared to Q4 2023
PLUS: Another local government hobbled by ransomware; Huge rise in infostealing malware; and critical vulns In Brief Protecting your privacy online is hard. So hard, in fact, that even a top Israeli spy who managed to stay incognito for 20 years has found himself exposed after one basic error.…