Should businesses prepare for ransomware with a cryptocurrency stash? [Q&A]
An increasing number of enterprises are considering pre-purchasing cryptocurrency in anticipation of potential ransomware attacks. But is this a valid risk-reduction strategy for enterprises?
To get some views on this controversial issue, we spoke with Mike Doran, senior security consultant with the enterprise incident management team at cybersecurity specialist Optiv, and former computer forensics examiner with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
Cisco Talos releases free decryptor for Thanatos ransomware -- ThanatosDecryptor
Getting hit by a ransomware attack is bad enough; it means that your files have been encrypted and you'll be asked to pay a fee in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum to unlock them. The problem is that paying the ransom is in no way a guarantee that your files will be decrypted -- the ransomware was created by criminals, after all.
If you've been struck by the Thanatos ransomware, however, there's good news from Cisco Talos. The company has analyzed the malware and developed a free decryption tool that will enable you to get your files back without having to part with any money.
Ransomware: As big a threat as the media claims
Ransomware is a very real threat that targets businesses of all sizes and industries. Really any business can be a target. With that being said financial institutions and retail are most at risk given the transactional nature of their business and the number of people that may have access to a terminal or computer at any given point in time.
The first thing that an organization needs to do is recognize that they are a target for ransomware just like any other company. Next, they need to ensure that they have the proper tools anti-virus/anti-malware installed on all computer systems to detect and defend against ransomware attacks. Of course, after this comes ensuring that the anti-virus/anti-malware software is kept up-to-date to ensure that the signature and traffic detection patterns are updated. It is critical that businesses have some sort of ransomware defense plan in place.
90 percent of financial institutions targeted by ransomware in the last year
Robbing a bank used to involve a mask, a gun and a fast car, but these days it's more likely to be done via the safer and no less lucrative means of a cyberattack.
A new report from cloud security specialist Carbon Black, based on responses from CISOs at 40 major financial institutions -- including six of the top 10 global banks -- seeks to better understand the attack landscape.
Ransomware attacks up 400 percent in 2017 mainly due to WannaCry
Ransomware attacks grew by 400 percent last year, largely down to the success of the WannaCry attack. It’s perhaps not surprising that other variants slowed down, but this signals a shift in the way ransomware is being used.
A new report from F-Secure shows WannaCry accounted for nine out of every 10 ransomware detection reports by the end of the year.
Phishing and drive-by downloads lead infection methods
The most common infection vectors are still email phishing and drive-by downloads according to the latest threat report from AI security specialist Cylance.
The report provides a real-world glimpse into major cyber threats that affected Cylance’s customer base in 2017. Along with industry trends and analysis, and data from thousands of government entities and organizations of all sizes across 160 countries that have adopted a prevention-first approach to security.
Almost six out of 10 organizations suffer ransomware attacks
New research reveals that 56 percent of surveyed decision makers from IT and risk, fraud or compliance functions report that their organization has suffered a ransomware attack in the last 12 months, compared to under half (48 percent) who said the same in 2016.
The study of 500 businesses in the UK, France, Germany and USA commissioned by SentinelOne and carried out by Vanson Bourne shows 69 percent say the most successful ransomware attack resulted in the attacker being able to encrypt some data, with five percent paying the ransom to decrypt the data.
Ransomware gives way to miners as cyber criminals follow the money
Cyber criminals have started using sophisticated infection methods and techniques borrowed from targeted attacks in order to install mining software on attacked PCs within organizations says Kaspersky Lab.
Some 2.7 million users have been attacked by malicious miners in 2017, according to Kaspersky's data. That's around 50 percent higher than in 2016 (1.87 million). But at the same time ransomware attacks have seen a decline.
Mid-market organizations hardest hit by ransomware
Mid-market organizations -- those with 1,000-5,000 employees -- have been hit the hardest with ransomware in 2017, with 29 percent experiencing a ransomware attack, according to a new report.
Security awareness training company KnowBe4 has released its 2018 Threat Impact and Endpoint Protection Report which shows organizations in manufacturing, technology and consumer-focused industries experienced the most ransomware attacks.
Cyber security in (big) numbers
We hear a lot about cyber attacks and the latest threats, but it can sometimes be hard to comprehend the scale of the problem.
Network security company Bricata has produced an infographic that sets out some of the statistics to put things into context.
Growth in Android ransomware slows, but it's getting sneakier
While Android ransomware is still growing, it's doing so at a slower rate than at its peak in 2016. However, it is using sneaky new techniques to trick users.
New findings from researchers at ESET reveal techniques like the misuse of Android's Accessibility services being used to infect devices. The most popular attack technique though remains screen-locking followed by a ransom demand. The most frequently detected variant being the Android/Locker family.
Record ransomware volumes seen in 2017
The latest annual State of Malware Report from Malwarebytes shows that ransomware had a bumper year in 2017, though it began to trend downwards towards the end of the year.
Ransomware launched against consumers was up more than 93 percent and ransomware against businesses up 90 percent. As the year end approached though many avenues known for ransomware drops were seen diversifying their payloads with banking Trojans and cryptocurrency miners instead.
Ransomware happens -- get over it and be prepared
In its recent State of the Channel Ransomware Report, data protection firm Datto found that SMBs ponied up some $301 million to digital hostage takers over the course of the past year. According to the survey that claims to have spoken to some 1,700 MSPs, representing over 100,000 clients, 21 percent stated that their clients suffered six or more attacks last year.
Simply put, roughly one in five organizations were victims of ransomware. However more disturbing was that 99 percent of MSPs told researchers that they expect to see the rise in ransomware attacks continue to grow over the next two years.
Half of companies suffer financially motivated cyber attacks
Cyber attacks driven by ransom demands are on the increase as criminals seek to cash in on the soaring values of crypto currencies according to a new report.
The 2017-2018 Global Application and Network Security Report from cyber security company Radware finds that reported ransom attacks surged in the past year, increasing 40 percent from the 2016 survey. Half of companies surveyed suffered a financially motivated attack in the past year.
Ransomware dominates the 2017 threat landscape
Cyber attacks have been on the rise throughout 2017. According to endpoint security specialist Carbon Black, from January to December there has been a 328 percent jump in attacks against endpoints.
This means a business with 10,000 employees seeing about 1,000 attacks every single day. It's ransomware that continues to be a main attack vector for criminals though. Not only is it proliferating in underground markets on the dark web, it also cost global businesses an estimated $5 billion in 2017 - according to Cybersecurity Ventures.
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