Security News > 2022 > June > We're now truly in the era of ransomware as pure extortion without the encryption

Increasingly cybercrime rings still tracked as ransomware operators are turning toward primarily data theft and extortion - and skipping the encryption step altogether.

The Conti internal communications leaked earlier in the year highlighted how these ransomware gangs operate akin to software-as-a-service startups.

"They're to the point where someone said, 'We're losing ground to other ransomware families. And we actually have to create marketing material to better position our ransomware as the choice du jour,'" Kovar said in an interview on the sidelines of RSAC. "That's fascinating," he continued.

"The way the ransomware actors have success is often through those known exploitable vulnerabilities," NSA Cybersecurity Director Rob Joyce said, speaking during a panel at RSA Conference.

"Write a press release that you're going to put out in the event of a data leak, or a ransomware attack," he said.

Eventually, corporations do recover from ransomware attacks - especially if they have good backups.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/06/25/ransomware_gangs_extortion_feature/