Security News > 2021 > November > Fake Ransomware Infection Hits WordPress Sites

The warnings have at least one ransomware accoutrement that might look convincing at first blush: a countdown clock tick-tick-ticking away, warning site owners that they've got seven days, 10 hours, 21 minutes and 9 seconds to fork over 0.1 Bitcoin - about USD $6,000 at the time this story was posted - before the files are encrypted and go up in an irretrievable puff of e-smoke.

Sucuri researchers who tracked down and analyzed the fake ransomware said they found a whole lot of nothing.

Dan Piazza, technical product manager for Stealthbits, now part of Netwrix, told Threatpost that it's not surprising to see fake ransomware attacks in the wake of the yearly increase in actual ransomware attacks, "Especially considering how low-effort these fake attacks can be," he said.

"Less skilled attackers can take advantage of the growing fear of ransomware and try to profit with simple hacks, rather than well-developed and complex ransomware."

The fact is that these WordPress sites were indeed compromised via their most privileged attack surface - "a WordPress Admin," he said via email.

To stay vigilant against real ransomware, Piazza advised that admins make sure that their sites are running the latest updates to the CMS, any plugins they're using, and any libraries or frameworks they've implemented in their source code.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/fake-ransomware-infection-wordpress/176410/