1 of 9
Ransomware continues to plague IT security teams as attackers rework their campaigns to be more subtle, more effective, and much more expensive for the organizations they hit.
Security experts predict the pace of ransomware attacks will accelerate this year as operators continue to succeed in extorting ransoms. As campaigns grow more organized and targeted, and the tools they require become easier to access, the future looks ominous for defenders.
A key trend the industry is watching is the growth of double extortion attacks. Operators use two strategies: They demand a ransom for the return of stolen data, then threaten to publish the data if an organization doesn't pay. The emergence of this trend in the past year indicates that over time, more victims have refused to pay ransom due to protections like data backups.
Many ransomware campaigns start with a phishing email as attackers hope an unsuspecting employee will click a link or download a malicious payload. If they do, the malware attempts to contact the attackers' command-and-control (C2) server and explore the target environment. Once inside, they look for assets, such as accounts and systems with access to valuable data. If they find and encrypt that data before they're detected, it's not a good day f ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
