A trend that often gets lost in the reporting of cybersecurity incidents is how important mainstream pen testing tools have become to cybercrime. This is also true in the ransomware sector where popular tools such as Cobalt Strike, Mimikatz, and PsExec are routinely abused for a multitude of tasks including reconnaissance, credential abuse, and post […]
Ever since ransomware actors took to stealing and leaking data rather than merely encrypting it, they’ve have had to overcome the problem of how to exploit their success in a way that scales efficiently. If you leak data from a few victims, the answer is fairly simple: Post sample data on a dark web site […]
Ransomware offers up few absolute certainties, but one that has become a given is that extortion payments are demanded in Bitcoin. It hasn’t always been so. In the very early days of ransomware from around 2006, extortionists had to rely on traditional channels to receive payments such as credit cards (believe it or not) and […]
Leaking private data to embarrass victims into paying a ransom is probably the least organizations should expect from ransomware criminals in 2023. Looking back over the last decade, it’s surprising criminals didn’t think of this tactic earlier. Encrypting files is hugely inconvenient but at least these can usually be restored with some effort. At some […]
As the ransomware industry has expanded over the last decade, so have the number of sources attempting to track the phenomenon in all its financial and human horror. Today, keeping up with either has become a full-time job. Ransomware has become ubiquitous, but so have the mainly private sector security companies queuing up to tell […]
As every organization affected by ransomware eventually understands, the disruption caused by an attack is only the beginning of its problems. Next comes paying a lot of big bills. The first is the ransom demand, although at least that’s optional. Beyond that lie unavoidable costs such as loss of business, hiring an expensive forensics company […]
