The Worsening State of Ransomware
cacm.acm.org
The Worsening State of Ransomware
1–10 of 139 posts
Re: The Worsening State of Ransomware
#2Ransomware only really works due to the lack of diversity of operating systems and software. If individuals and businesses were all running different stuff it would be nearly impossible to target them en mass. You could only target them one at a time.
Re: The Worsening State of Ransomware
#3> These "customers," who have zero coding skills or software expertise, take advantage of a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model to gain sophisticated capabilities
> Incredibly, many of these operations look and function like authentic businesses. "They rent office space, they have development teams, data architecture teams, help desks, phone support, and people that negotiate ransoms with targets"
What a crazy world we live in, where criminal organization have a quasi-normal corporate structure and even manage a "customer" support team
Re: The Worsening State of Ransomware
#4> Gangs also have begun encrypting backup systems, including cloud storage services such as Office 365 and Drop-box. Although 56% of the firms surveyed by Sophos regained control of their data through backups, that window appears to be closing. "[Cybergangs] have realized that the ransom demand becomes powerless if you have a full backup set in place and you can revert to it,"
This is why our backups at work write to a storage bucket with permissions such that they can create new files but not delete old ones. I'd definitely recommend this approach to everyone who can afford the storage space.
Re: The Worsening State of Ransomware
#5> These "customers," who have zero coding skills or software expertise, take advantage of a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model to gain sophisticated capabilities > Incredibly, many of these operations look and function like authentic businesses. "They rent office space, they have development teams, data architecture teams, help desks, phone support, and people that negotiate ransoms with targets" What a crazy world…
Is this any different from the mafia in many places?
Re: The Worsening State of Ransomware
#6> These "customers," who have zero coding skills or software expertise, take advantage of a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model to gain sophisticated capabilities > Incredibly, many of these operations look and function like authentic businesses. "They rent office space, they have development teams, data architecture teams, help desks, phone support, and people that negotiate ransoms with targets" What a crazy world…
"If you were to hold a McDonald’s organizational chart and the crack gang’s organizational chart side by side, you could hardly tell the difference."
From "Why Drug Dealers Live With Their Moms" By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-apr-24-oe-dubne...
Re: The Worsening State of Ransomware
#7Funny that nightly tape backups, a very old and established technology, would pretty much fix the problem.
Re: The Worsening State of Ransomware
#8> These "customers," who have zero coding skills or software expertise, take advantage of a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model to gain sophisticated capabilities > Incredibly, many of these operations look and function like authentic businesses. "They rent office space, they have development teams, data architecture teams, help desks, phone support, and people that negotiate ransoms with targets" What a crazy world…
Crime is still business, so they operate like one. Minus the risk of being arrested, there's really no difference between a criminal company and a legitimate one.
Re: The Worsening State of Ransomware
#9> Not surprisingly, dozens of major ransomware gangs now exist worldwide, including in Russia, Eastern Europe, and North Korea.
To what extent should ransomware activity be considered low-grade economic warfare by nation-states who can't or won't police cyber-criminals, and thus justification for robust national responses such as sanctions?
Re: The Worsening State of Ransomware
#10[deleted]