Displaying items by tag: Ransom

GUEST OPINION: According to Virsec Cofounder and CTO Satya Gupta, bad actors can be expected to adopt the following new strategies over the next few quarters.

GUEST OPINION by Luke Smith, Regional Account Director, Barracuda MSP:  Ransomware is rife but organisations that do the work may be able to avoid paying out, should the worst occur.

GUEST OPINION by Brad Newton, ANZ Managing Director at Cohesity:  Insurance by definition is ‘a financial agreement whereby premiums are paid in exchange for a guarantee that costs will be met if a predetermined event occurs. Given the Australian Cyber Security Centre receives over 67,500 cybercrime reports each a year, and a ransomware attack happens globally every 11 seconds, it’s little wonder the global cyber insurance market is valued at more than $8 billion annually, with a compounding annual growth rate of 23.76% through 2027¹.

Two ransomware operators have been arrested in Ukraine, the European police organisation Europol says, saying the men were picked up on 28 September.

GUEST RESEARCH: Manufacturing and production companies were the least likely (at 19%) to pay ransom and the most likely (at 68%) to be able to restore data from backups, according to a study by cybersecurity company Sophos.

ANALYSIS Claims that the Colonial Pipeline Company paid US$5 million as a ransom to the group behind the DarkSide Windows ransomware after it was attacked on 7 May need to be taken with a pinch of salt, seeing as the report was an "exclusive" from Bloomberg.

Australia is among the top seven countries where organisations have had their data exploited and leaked, with "double-extortion" and "ransomware-as-a-service" frequently used in 2020.

The latest Cyberthreats Report from cyber protection powerhouse Acronis says that 2021 will see remote workers and managed service providers targeted by cyberattackers, with data exfiltration to outpace data encryption

An Australian firm that was hit by the Windows REvil ransomware earlier this month has said that it has dealt with the incident fully, having been ready to do so by upgrading its defences over the last few years

Publicly listed US transportation services firm Matson appears to have been hit by a gang of cyber criminals using the Windows REvil ransomware, with the thieves claiming to have stolen a terabyte of data.

Ransomware attacks have grown massively in number over the last 12 months and these days most attacks on Windows systems are invariably through the use of this genre of malware.

Cyber criminals who attacked the Germany-based global enterprise software company Software AG using the Windows Cl0p ransomware on 3 October have leaked a large amount of data, that was stolen during the attack, on the dark web.

A big US travel management company CWT was hit by ransomware and agreed to pay a ransom to the cyber criminals behind the attack.

The saga surrounding Australian money management firm MyBudget is yet to end, with the ransomware group which infiltrated its servers now removing the company's name from the site where it advertises the names of victims who have not acceded to its ransom demands.

The attackers behind the REvil ransomware are reportedly demanding an increased ransom from American food distribution firm Harvest/Sherwood Food Distributors after negotiations over the amount to be paid, through incident response company Coveware, went wrong.

Global insurance provider Chubb appears to have been hit by the Maze ransomware, which attacks Windows systems, the data breach monitoring and prevention service Under the Breach says, adding that the attackers have not yet provided any proof of the attack.

The security firm Emsisoft has warned anyone hit by the Ryuk ransomware that the decryption tool supplied by the malicious attackers behind Ryuk may no longer be able to decrypt files that have been encrypted.

A senior security researcher at the Slovakian security outfit ESET has highlighted the dangers from what is dubbed siegeware – software that is used to secure building automation systems and that can, once hacked, result in horrendous outcomes.

A week after news of a leak of material from the cable network HBO broke, the people allegedly behind it have contacted the network demanding money and threatening to release more material which they pilfered.

Apple's release of iOS 10.3 has fixed a bug in its mobile Safari browser that was being exploited by attackers to extract a ransom from users.