When ransomware visits your network, resolve to build it back better. And if you’re tempted to pay the ransom, don’t. That money is better spent on new defenses to prevent a repeat incident. These are some of the takeaways from a remarkable British Library report, Learning Lessons From The Cyberattack, that analyzes the paralyzing ransomware […]
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Cybercriminals, it is widely observed, have a fondness for weekends. This is not by chance—at weekends organizations are short-staffed, making this the best time to launch a cyberattack. It’s a pattern that played out in a ransomware attack on the Romanian health system on Sunday, Feb. 11, that sent some of the country’s most important […]
The post Romanian Healthcare System Laid Low by Attack on Shared Software Platform appeared first on Ransomware.org.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before but ransomware is undergoing another one of its periodic surges. Granted, cybercrime always seems to be on the up—does the media ever report drops in cybercrime?—but this time there’s some hard evidence to back it up. That ransomware activity for 2023 rose was no surprise with the […]
The post As Ransomware Attacks Surge Again, What’s Ahead for 2024? appeared first on Ransomware.org.
As we regularly observe in this blog, ransomware is devious and endlessly inventive. It’s this ability to find new variations on the same basic extortion template that has made it the most successful commercial form of cybercrime yet invented. Excepting the occasional technical hack (including a talent for spotting weaknesses everyone else has overlooked), most […]
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How will the sudden emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) platforms such as ChatGPT influence future ransomware attacks? Right now, there are so many pessimistic answers to this question it can be hard to judge the real-world risk they pose. On the one hand, there’s no doubt that AI can easily be used to improve individual […]
The post AI Will Power a New Generation of Ransomware, Predicts Britain’s NCSC appeared first on Ransomware.org.
The most extraordinary week in ransomware history anyone can remember began on Feb. 19 with an historic takedown of the infrastructure used by notorious ransomware group, LockBit. Industry watchers were euphoric, almost giddily so. If anything, that might be understating it. Twitter-X was ablaze with congratulations, most of them aimed at Britain’s National Crime Agency […]
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The 1980s brutalism of the British Library in London has been likened to an unwelcoming fortress, and yet the intimidating appearance was no help when ransomware attackers decided to pay it a visit last October. In what is turning out to be one of the worst incidents ever to hit a public U.K. organization, over […]
The post Why Are Ransomware Attacks Becoming More Dangerous? The British Library Attack Gives Us Some Clues appeared first on Ransomware.org.
Has the digital reign of terror from the world’s second most active ransomware group, ALPHV (BlackCat), come to an end, or hasn’t it? If you ask the coalition of global police forces that recently seized its infrastructure, you’ll get a clear yes in answer to that question. The first sign that ALPHV was in trouble […]
The post After DOJ Takedown, the Notorious ALPHV Ransomware Group Fights Back appeared first on Ransomware.org.
One of the most unexpected trends of recent years is the way ransomware has turned high-impact cybercrime incidents into a public spectacle. For ransomware criminals, the more public the better. Extra publicity equals more embarrassment for the victim, which even if it doesn’t result in a ransom being paid serves as a warning to future […]
The post Is the Relationship Between Journalists and Ransomware Gangs Healthy? appeared first on Ransomware.org.
In the relatively short history of ransomware crime, very few of the professional criminals behind these attacks have ever been brought to justice. So many crimes, so few arrests, and there’s no mystery as to why: Ransomware criminals typically operate from countries with weak or no laws against what they do, and sometimes (stand up, […]
The post Europol Makes New Ransomware Arrests. But Will It Make Any Difference? appeared first on Ransomware.org.
