Ransomware is rapidly shaping up to be the defining online security issue of our era. It's a brutally simple idea, executed with increasing sophistication by criminal groups. A huge chunk of our lives is now stored digitally, whether that's photos, videos, business plans or customer databases. But too many of us have been lazy about securing these vital assets. The criminals' brilliant twist is to realise they don't have to steal that data to make money: they just have to make it impossible access again -- by encrypting it -- unless the victims pay up.
Ransomware was once a menace mainly for consumers, but now it's a significant threat to business. Just last week, there were warnings about a new wave of ransomware attacks against at least 31 large organisations with the aim of demanding millions of dollars in ransom. The attackers had breached the networks of targeted organizations and were in the process of laying the groundwork for their attacks.
The vast majority of targets were household names, including eight Fortune 500 companies, tech security company Symantec said: if the attack (by a group calling itself Evil Corp) hadn't been disrupted, it could have led to millions in damages and downtime, with the impact felt through the supply chain.
Some of the hyperbole around ransomware is overblown. It's probably over the top to describe these WastedLocker attacks as part of Evil Corp's retaliation against the US government after its leaders were indicted ..
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