Many threat actors tend to lurk around compromised networks for days before deploying ransomware, giving victim organizations a chance to prevent the attacks if they can spot the initial activity quickly enough.
Researchers from FireEye Mandiant recently reviewed more than two years' worth of ransomware attack data to see what trends they could spot. The researchers wanted to identify common characteristics around initial intrusion vectors, average attacker dwell time on a compromised network, and the time of day when attackers typically tended to deploy ransomware.
Their study showed that in a majority of incidents, attackers waited at least three days after breaking into a network to identity key systems to target with their ransomware. Such post-compromise ransomware deployment is growing in popularity because it is often more damaging for victims and more profitable for attackers than other models, says Kelli Vanderlee, manager, intelligence analysis at FireEye.
By spending time in a victim environment, malicious actors are often able to identify important assets, like backups and network segments storing valuable data and key systems that can be used to disseminate their ransomware widely. "This more effective targeting and deployment gives the threat actors more leverage against a victim, allowing them to demand higher ransoms and net higher profits," Vanderlee says. Post-compromise reconnaissance also provides attackers with additional opportunities for follow-on activity, like data theft for sale or extortion.
At the same time, though, the dwell time between initial compromise and ransomware deployment gives organizations a chance to neutralize the attack before it even has a chance to unfold, Vanderlee says. "In most cases ransomware is not executed until days after the initial ..
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