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.
Chinese-speaking threat actors are suspected to have leveraged a compromised SonicWall VPN appliance as an initial access vector to deploy a VMware ESXi exploit that may have been developed as far back as February 2024
Basketball player accused of aiding cybercrime gang extradition blocked in exchange for Swiss NGO consultant France has released an alleged ransomware crook wanted by the US in exchange for a conflict researcher imprisoned in Russia.…
Cop wins hit crime infrastructure, not the people behind it If 2025 was meant to be the year ransomware started dying, nobody appears to have told the attackers.…
They also hallucinate when writing ransomware code Interview With everyone from would-be developers to six-year-old kids jumping on the vibe coding bandwagon, it shouldn't be surprising that criminals like automated coding tools too.…
Ransomware Gang Qilin Had Claimed It Stole 852 GB of Health System's DataNearly half a million patients of a Catholic healthcare network that serves New England and parts of Pennsylvania began the new year by receiving notifications that hackers may have stolen their health information in a May 2025 hacking incident.
More Than 100,000 Affected by Hack Detected on Dec. 30The New Zealand government is probing a year-end ransomware hack of private healthcare service provider Manage My Health that impacted thousands of patients. Digital extortion group Kazu has claimed responsibility and threatened to leak the data on Jan. 15 unless it receives a $60,000 ransom.
Two US citizens pleaded guilty to working as ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware affiliates in 2023, and both were previously employed by prominent security firms.