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.
Colorado State University (CSU) has confirmed that the Clop ransomware operation stole sensitive personal information of current and former students and employees during the recent MOVEit Transfer data-theft attacks. [...]
The figure accounts for losses due to downtime alone
Shutterfly, an online retail and photography manufacturing platform, is among the latest victims hit by Clop ransomware. Over the last few months, Clop ransomware gang has been exploiting a vulnerability in the MOVEit File Transfer utility to breach hundreds of companies to steal their data and attempt extortion against them. [...]
Banks and financial service providers have emerged as attractive targets for the most prominent ransomware groups
A good backup strategy can be effective at mitigating a ransomware attack, but how many organizations consider that their backup data can also be targeted?
Ransomware has emerged as the only cryptocurrency-based crime to grow in 2023, with cybercriminals extorting nearly $175.8 million more than they did a year ago, according to findings from Chainalysis
Chainalysis claims big-game hunting is back
Data from the first half of the year indicates that ransomware activity is on track to break previous records, seeing a rise in the number of payments, both big and small. [...]
A developing piece of ransomware called Big Head is being distributed as part of a malvertising campaign that takes the form of bogus Microsoft Windows updates and Word installers
BlackCat pounces on 7TB of data and theatens to release it Staff at one of the UK's largest hospital groups have spent a nervous week wondering if private data, stolen from their employer's IT systems by a ransomware gang, is going to be splurged online after a deadline to prevent publication passed.…