Security News
Theoretically, the threat of ransomware would be more of a costly irritant than a catastrophe; the idea being that if you pay the ransom, the problem goes away. Research from McGrathNicol Advisory found that 73% of Australian organisations that experienced a ransomware attack in the past five years chose to pay the ransom.
Russian-speaking threat actors accounted for at least 69% of all crypto proceeds linked to ransomware throughout the previous year, exceeding $500,000,000. "Russian-speaking threat actors from across the former Soviet Union consistently drive most types of crypto-enabled cybercrime, from ransomware to illicit crypto exchanges and darknet markets," explains TRM. Ransomware is a form of cybercrime in which attackers steal and encrypt data on compromised systems and then demand a ransom payment in exchange for a decryption key and a promise to delete the stolen files.
CDK Global reportedly paid a $25 million ransom in Bitcoin after its servers were knocked offline by crippling ransomware. Last week, CDK restored services to car dealerships across the US after a two-week outage caused by a "Cyber incident" that looked a lot like a ransomware infection.
The open-source Rafel RAT is being leveraged by multiple threat actors to compromise Android devices and, in some cases, to lock them, encrypt their contents, and demand money to restore the device to its original state. Check Point researchers have observed around 120 different malicious campaigns leveraging the malware, hitting devices around the world, but primarely in the US, China, India and Indonesia.
No ransomware gang ever claimed the attack or leaked stolen data, indicating that a ransom was paid. Just as the data breach notifications were being emailed on Thursday, an alleged employee claimed on Reddit that Panera paid paid a ransom to have the hackers delete the stolen data and avoid a public leak.
"Our report delivers a clear message: ransomware attacks will continue, be more severe than predicted, and the overall impact will cost organizations more than they expect. Organizations must take action to ensure cyber resiliency and acknowledge that rapid, clean recovery matters most," added Russell. Despite increased focus on cyber-preparedness, organizations still face a misalignment between their backup and cyber teams.
Chinese shopping platform Pandabuy told BleepingComputer it previously paid a a ransom demand to prevent stolen data from being leaked, only for the same threat actor to extort the company again this week. On March 31, 2024, a threat actor using the alias 'Sanggiero' published 3 million rows of data stolen from PandaBuy on BreachForums, exposing customer names, phone numbers, email addresses, login IP addresses, home addresses, and order details.
Ransomware didn't just grow in the US in 2023, it evolved, with the frequency of ransomware claims jumping 64% year-over-year, according to At-Bay. Double leverage attacks - those using both data encryption and exfiltration - also grew by 51% in 2023, demonstrating that threat actors shifted their tactics to pressure more victims into paying ransoms.
Excluding ransoms, the survey found the average cost of recovery reached $2.73 million, an increase of almost $1 million since the $1.82 million that Sophos reported in 2023. 46% of organizations with revenue of less $50 million received a seven-figure ransom demand in the last year.
Your profile can be used to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests. Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services, possible interests and personal aspects.