One of the largest online threats of our time, it's definitely Ransomware. This is a relatively simple one software, which, however, has evolved greatly from malicious agents.
Today, most data we are saved online, the risk is greater. However, few users make the effort to protect them adequately. Hackers have realized that it is not necessary to steal this data in order to make money. They can just lock them up and ask for ransom to give to them users the decryption key.
While Ransomware was primarily a consumer threat, it has now expanded to include businesses. Just last week, there were attacks on 31 major organizations, where attackers managed to break into their systems and demand millions of dollars in ransom.
The hacking teams that perform this type of attacks, are constantly evolving and because usually half the companies pay the ransom, they receive huge sums of money.
For example, they have discovered new ways to avoid it detection from protection programs. And every time these programs get better, the malicious factors they invent something new to escape.
However, their goals hacker have changed, since they no longer choose only computers. Other elements affected by these attacks are servers, databases, virtual machines and environments. in cloud. In addition, they search for and encrypt any backups that organizations leave connected to the network. This makes it much harder for a company to recover unless it pays the ransom. In fact, in some cases, the attack can last for weeks and lead to the complete control of a system.
Authorities do not have the knowledge to identify and arrest the perpetrators. Many businesses prefer to pay to return to normal business and leave behind the cost and stress of the whole event.
It is very likely that ransomware will be the core of a new type of digital attack, which will be used by states and those who just want to destroy networks. Malicious software Wiper for example, it is a ransomware whose encryption it cannot be reversed, so the data is lost forever.
Another concern is that, as these groups get better and funded with larger amounts, they will set even higher goals. A new worrying trend is in addition to network encryption and data theft. They can then threaten to leak this data in order to force the victim to pay.
With the current situation, there does not seem to be an end to ransomware attacks. In fact, chances are they will get worse.
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