For most of us, the chance of being caught up in a data breach is just another hazard of online life.Personally identifiable information (PII) is stolen from a company we have an association with, and nobody is the wiser unless the company contacts us with the bad news.Except not every company wants to tell us, […]
Once upon a time, Linux was thought of as being the most secure from ransomware of all operating systems. This reputation stemmed from its relatively low adoption rate when compared to Microsoft Windows, and the lack of Linux-based programming skills within the general IT community.However, ransomware developers have an uncanny knack for quickly bounding ahead, […]
I recently outlined the many methods of ransomware infection to showcase the ways ransomware can gain a foothold. Cheerscrypt adds yet another: VMware ESXi servers, which many organizations rely on to host virtual machines (VMs) for many different functions. Much like RDP Ransomware, VM ransomware targets the host so that the damage spreads exponentially to […]
The U.S. has a way to cut off funding to some ransomware gangs, and it works—but it’s seldom used. If the U.S. has economic sanctions against a nation (Iran, Russia, and North Korea, for example) then it can be illegal for American companies to deal with organizations from that nation. This can include paying ransom […]
If you had to name a piece of software cybercriminals look to target, Microsoft’s Exchange Server would surely be near the top of the list.To its huge user base, it’s the perfect DIY in-house email system that has dovetailed with Microsoft’s ecosystem since the 1990s. To criminals, including ransomware criminals, it’s become tempting prey with […]
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine came the deployment of several destructive malware families, known as “wipers,” against entities in Ukraine, with nine distinct variants observed to date. The first two, WhisperGate and HermeticWiper/PartyTicket, masqueraded as ransomware, but they were actually destructive tools rather than legitimate ransomware. This raises an important question: What’s the difference […]