IT KILLS SILENTLY

RANSOMWARE – 1989 TO NOW

Ransomware has been around for more than 30 years. In 1989, a biologist named Joesph Popp distributed the AIDS Trojan – aka PC Cyborg – on 20,000 floppy disks that contained a trojan virus. It installed itself on MS-DOS operating systems. Since then, ransomware has come a long way, especially with the recent major attacks on Colonial Pipeline, JBS and Kaseya in 2021. For hackers, the malicious code is an easy way to gain financial reward by offering a decryption key for encrypted critical data. Experts also predict that in 2022, the average time from intrusion to detection grow, giving bad actors more time to perform reconnaissance, infiltrate and immobilize IT networks and computers.

SUPPLY CHAIN ATTACKS  

In 2022 and beyond, it is believed that ransomware will adopt a new guise where ransomware attacks on one business become extortion threats for its business partners. Hackers won’t only extort the first victim that holds the data of partner organizations. Instead, they will also target its business partners and create a mass disruption of supply chains as happened with Kaseya. While government agencies in the United States and the UK have been successful in taking down ransomware gangs such as REvil, this does not mean that the cyber threat has disappeared. Cybercriminals continue to launch more sophisticated phishing attacks using Machine Learning and coordinated sharing on the Dark Web. Hackers will continue to demand payment in cryptocurrency while is much more difficult to trace.

RANSOMWARE INCREASES EXPONENTIALLY

Research conducted by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) shows that there were 3 times as many ransomware attacks in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the whole of 2019. While large businesses such as financial institutions have strategies in place to counter these attacks, the same cannot be said for SMEs. Many SMEs lack the resources to become fully cyber secure and provide employees with adequate cybersecurity education. Staff who are cyber aware are 8 times less likely to fall for a phishing scam. According to Keven Breen, a cyber threat researcher:

“Ransomware is not going anywhere in 2022, but we will see attackers evolve their strategies in light of heavy crackdowns and supply chain insecurities. The attackers will always have the first-move advantage.”

STRIKING CORPORATES AND SMEs

Some say that hackers are more attracted to companies with revenues in excess of £50 million and not those in the education, government, healthcare and non-profit sectors. Nevertheless, SMEs will need to be prepared for an onslaught of attacks in 2022 using prevention, mitigation, education and incident response. Last Tuesday, the Executive Director of the CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), Brandon Wales, warned SMEs in the United States to be vigilant of the now-prevalent Ragnar Locker ransomware and said:

“These issues that you’re addressing and bringing together the small- and medium-sized businesses on are absolutely essential both given our current threat environment and because we know that these issues are front of mind, for business leaders throughout the country.”

At present, Ragnar has infected 52 organizations in the country. Wales also spoke of the impending Russian ransomware threat spreading beyond the borders of Ukraine and added:

“We are mindful of the potential for Russia to escalate destabilizing actions it’s taking inside of Ukraine that could have impacts outside of Ukraine.”

STOP IT NOW

Russia may be set on destabilizing global IT networks and paralyzing data but you don’t need to be part of any hacking action. With my help, you can stop it now, and by ‘it’ I mean Russian hackers. I have more than 20 years of experience in the field of professional business IT support. I specialise in cybersecurity and risk mitigation. Contact me now. Together we can ensure that your data is always out of reach cybercrooks, wherever they are in the world.

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