Every ransomware attack that has ever happened exploits a fundamental advantage cybercriminals have over defenders—time. Clock 1: Dwell Time Three clocks are at work here. The first starts ticking from the moment of an initial compromise and stops at the second of ransomware execution. In cybersecurity parlance, this is known as the dwell time, or […]

If there’s one thing that’s worse than being compromised by ransomware, it’s realizing that the hack that led to the ransomware compromise happened months earlier without being spotted. For attackers, this is called achieving persistence, and is considered the holy grail of malware techniques because it allows criminals to widen their net and undermine even […]

Just when you think ransomware criminals have exhausted their box of surprises, up pops something brand new nobody saw coming. The latest example, first reported by Bleeping Computer, is a disarmingly simple innovation—target organizations inside Russia for extortion attacks. According to the website, since late March a new group called NB65 claims it has attacked […]

Moscow’s Federation Tower is not particularly famous outside Russia, yet thousands of ransomware victims across the world might have an unwelcome connection to some of the companies operating from within its shimmering glass walls. Designed by a German-based architect, the tower is in fact two skyscrapers of different heights, named simply Vostok (East) and Zapad […]

It’s no secret that the sums demanded by ransomware extortionists have become more outrageous over the last three years. Ransomware started out as a crime against home users, with ransoms in the tens to hundreds of dollars at most. Then criminals discovered small- and medium-sized businesses, and ransoms shot up into the hundreds of thousands. […]