Security News > 2021 > February > Ransomware attacks increasingly destroy victims’ data by mistake

More and more ransomware victims are resisting the extortionists and refuse to pay when they can recover from backups, despite hackers' threats to leak the data stolen before encryption.

In the last quarter of 2020, Coveware received an increasing number of reports about entire clusters of servers and data shares being wiped out in ransomware attacks.

"The uptick in haphazard data destruction has led some victims to suffer significant data loss and extended business interruption as they struggle to rebuild systems from scratch" - Coveware.

Threatening victims with leaking stolen data to pressure them into paying is a twist that the now shut down Maze ransomware operation introduced in late 2019.

This comes on the backdrop of more ransomware attacks in Q4 being accompanied by the threat of leaking stolen data, from 50% to 70%. Companies are right not to trust hackers about deleting the stolen data if they got paid as Coveware continues to see signs that this is not happening in all cases.

Even more, some gangs lie about exfiltrating data and fabricate "Evidence" just to add the pressure of a data breach on the victim and force a payment.

News URL

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-attacks-increasingly-destroy-victims-data-by-mistake/