Wary of a recession? Increase your investment in cybersecurity technologies
Leading organizations in all industries have accelerated their digital transformation and change management over the past three years, and for a good reason. According to Deloitte, meaningful digital transformation initiatives can unlock up to $1.25 trillion in market capital across Fortune 500 companies, with similarly positive results demonstrated for mid-range and small enterprises.
The key word here is "meaningful." But what constitutes beneficial change management processes versus directionless spending?
Three-quarters of consumers are ready to ditch a company after a ransomware attack
A new study shows that 75 percent of consumers would switch their business to another company following a ransomware attack.
The survey, from backup appliance company Object First, also reveals that consumers are requesting increased protection from vendors that hold their data, with 55 percent favoring companies with comprehensive data protection measures such as reliable backup and recovery, password protection, and identity and access management strategies.
Combating ransomware: Strategies for defense
In today's interconnected world, the threat of ransomware looms larger than ever before across industries. Malicious actors continue to exploit vulnerabilities, and the dark cloud of ransomware shows no signs of dissipating. Recent data from the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) shows that cost per ransomware incident doubled over the past two years and remains one of the top action types present in breaches.
In this article, we will explore how ransomware works and what steps organizations can take to protect employees and data from these attacks.
Manufacturing businesses face escalating cyber threats
Two thirds of IT executives in the manufacturing sector believe that their enterprise will be targeted by a cyberattack within the next 12 months.
The study of 300 executives, carried out by CXO Priorities for Quest Software, shows that the most significant threats are seen as ransomware (22 percent), industrial espionage (21 percent), and state-sponsored threats (21 percent).
Why organizations shouldn't pay ransomware demands [Q&A]
Many organizations around the world are opting to pay ransoms to cybercriminals in order to buy back ownership of their data. But this can leave them open to further risk of attack.
Gerasim Hovhannisyan, CEO and co-founder of EasyDMARC, believes it's wrong to pay up and that it's better to establish good defenses. We spoke to him to find out why.
Cyber extortion activity reaches new highs
After a decrease of eight percent in cyber extortion (Cy-X) victims in 2022, the data for the first quarter of this year shows the largest volumes to date.
The latest Cy-Xplorer 2023 report from Orange Cyberdefense shows businesses in 96 different countries were impacted by Cy-X in 2022. Since 2020 Orange Cyberdefense has recorded victims in over 70 percent of all countries worldwide.
Ransomware targets specific industries as attack success rate soars
Last month broke ransomware records -- and not in a good way. The latest report from Blackfog shows 66 publicly disclosed ransomware attacks, the highest recorded since the company began reporting in January 2020.
More concerning still is a significant uptick in the attack success rate, with a 154 percent increase over 2022.
Cyber insurance gets more expensive as ransomware attacks target backup storage
A new report reveals that 93 percent of ransomware attacks are now targeting backup storage as a way of ensuring payment.
The report from Veeam also shows that the success of attacks is having an impact on enterprises' ability to get insurance cover. 21 percent of organizations say that ransomware is now specifically excluded from their policies.
Dark web market in infostealers is booming
A new report from the Secureworks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) uncovers a thriving market in infostealer logs that serves as a key enabler for some of the most damaging forms of cybercrime such as ransomware attacks.
On the 'Russian Market' site alone, the number of logs for sale increased by 150 percent in less than nine months, from two million on a single day in June 2022 to over five million on a single day in late February 2023.
Number of ransomware victims increases by 25 percent
A new report based on publicly available resources finds a 25 percent increase in ransomware victims from Q4 2022 and a 27 percent increase compared to Q1 of the same year.
The study from GuidePoint Security's Research and Intelligence Team (GRIT) tracked 849 total publicly posted ransomware victims claimed by 29 different threat groups in the first quarter of this year.
Ransomware attacks can cost enterprises up to 30 percent of operating income
The financial impact of a ransomware attack can cost businesses up to 30 percent of their operating income, with smaller enterprises hit proportionally harder.
A new report from ThreatConnect looks at the financial impact of ransomware attacks on small ($500M), medium ($1.5B) and large ($15B) organizations within healthcare, manufacturing, and utilities.
US and UK are the countries most attacked by ransomware
In the 12 months from April 2022 to March 2023 the US and UK were the countries that suffered the most ransomware attacks.
However, the latest Malwarebytes ransomware report shows that the USA suffered a little over seven times more attacks in the last twelve months than the UK. It's perhaps not a coincidence that the USA's economic output, measured by gross domestic product (GDP), is also about seven times larger than the UK's.
Multiple-threat ransomware attacks become more common
It used to be the case that all you had to worry about with ransomware was encrypted data, but the latest Cyberthreat Defense Report (CDR) from CyberEdge Group reveals that last year 78 percent of ransomware victims faced the consequences of one, two or three additional threats unless they paid the ransom.
Additional threats include launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks (42 percent), notifying customers or the media of the data breach (42 percent), and publicly releasing exfiltrated data (40 percent).
Recovering from ransomware is a long-term commitment -- and a long-term expense
According to Forrester, nearly two-thirds of organizations (63 percent) were breached by ransomware in 2021, up 4 percent from the previous year. Recovery was a long, hard road for many of those enterprises -- while for others, the downstream effects of ransomware were ultimately insurmountable. The alarming rise in ransomware must guide IT leaders' cybersecurity decisions in 2023.
Why is ransomware on the rise? For one, bad actors are becoming far more advanced and prolific. Ransomware gangs continued to make headlines in 2022 for their high-profile attacks and advancements in post-breach encryption. On the other end of the spectrum, the barrier to entry for ransomware is lower than ever before. Ransomware as a service (RaaS) -- which allows bad actors to deploy ransomware for a fee -- has ushered in a new generation of hackers who can target enterprises of all sizes despite their relative inexperience with cybersecurity protocols.
MSI urges caution when downloading BIOS and firmware updates following cyberattack and rumors of $4 million ransom demand
Computer maker MSI has confirmed that it fell victim to a security breach, confirming rumors that sprang up in recent days. The Taiwanese company says that it "suffered a cyberattack on part of its information systems", and has warned customers to exercise caution when downloading BIOS and firmware updates for its products.
Although MSI has shared little in the way of detail about the incident, the confirmation comes after the ransomware group Money Message was said to have breached the company's defenses. The group has made demands for $4 million with the threats of leaking stolen files.
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