This blog post was co-authored by Jason Fricke.
Ransomware poses a growing threat to both businesses and government agencies. Though no strategy can fully eliminate these risks, this post provides recommendations, and links to additional best practices, on better managing ransomware risks.
The first ransomware virus was created by Joseph L. Popp, an evolutionary biologist. Popp distributed the virus at the World Health Organization's 1989 AIDS conference via 20,000 infected disks. The virus, which used rudimentary symmetric cryptography to encrypt files, was called the AIDS Trojan and also PC Cyborg. While infected organizations were able to easily decrypt the affected files, Popp's innovation inspired cyber criminals to develop more sophisticated variants.
Features of contemporary ransomware include the use of anonymous payment services to collect ransoms, strong asymmetric encryption, and fileless (no executable) malware. Emerging trends include ransomworms, such as WannaCry and NotPetya, and evolving tactics, techniques, and procedures. Though cyber criminals' interest appears to be making money, skilled attackers might also penetrate a network, accomplish their objectives, and leave ransomware behind as a distractor from their primary objectives.
Ransomware attacks are now an established part of the cyber threat environment, and they are getting costlier and more sophisticated. Even though the healthcare industry was a primary target for ransomware attacks in 2018--almost half of the incidents reported involved healthcare companies--the highest ..
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