Ransomware encrypts or steals data to disrupt operations and extort victims, making backups, access controls, and incident response essential.
Search across headline titles and summaries.
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.
The Play ransomware gang has begun to leak data from the City of Oakland, California, that was stolen in a recent cyberattack. [...]
This week was highlighted by a massive BlackBasta ransomware attack targeting DISH Network and taking down numerous subsidiaries, including SlingTV and Boost Mobile. [...]
Canada's largest bookseller rejected the pressure of the ransomware gang's countdown timer, despite data threats.
Wondering which cybercrime tools, techniques and procedures to focus on? How about any and all of them?
CISA and the FBI have issued a joint advisory highlighting the increasing threat behind ongoing Royal ransomware attacks targeting many U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including healthcare, communications, and education. [...]
The Play ransomware gang has taken responsibility for a cyberattack on the City of Oakland that has disrupted IT systems since mid-February. [...]
Malicious activity using a particular malware variant has been spotted since September 2022
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released a new advisory about Royal ransomware, which emerged in the threat landscape last year
Just-revealed US cybersecurity strategy 'has fangs' for catching crafty criminals and crummy coders Analysis Technology providers can expect more regulations, while cyber criminals can look for US law enforcement to step up their efforts to disrupt ransomware gangs and other illicit activities, under the Biden administration's computer security plan announced on Thursday.…
In this blog entry, we present a case study that illustrates how data-science techniques can be used to gain valuable insights about ransomware groups' targeting patterns as detailed in our research paper, “What Decision-Makers Need to Know About Ransomware Risk.”
The cyberattackers might have potentially accessed customer information, the service provider warns.
Six different law firms were targeted in January and February 2023 as part of two disparate threat campaigns distributing GootLoader and FakeUpdates (aka SocGholish) malware strains
Satellite TV provider comes clean in SEC filing
Bitdefender moves in record time to help victims
Unknown attackers made off with a raft of PII, the Justice Department says — but witnesses in the protection program are still safe.
Outage-hit telco still won't confirm ransomware infection, or if it's paying up Dish has confirmed what everyone was suspecting, given the ongoing downtime experienced by some of its systems, that the US telco was hit by criminal hackers.…
Cybersecurity company Bitdefender has released a free MortalKombat ransomware decryptor that victims can use to restore their files without paying a ransom. [...]
Satellite broadcast provider and TV giant Dish Network has finally confirmed that a ransomware attack was the cause of a multi-day network and service outage that started on Friday. [...]
Drew Wade, chief of the Marshals Service public affairs office, made the announcement on Monday
The war on critical infrastructure demands a better security strategy.