Ransomware has been a growing scourge for years, but recent attacks illustrate a growing sophistication by attackers within this slice of the cybercrime underbelly. Snowballing assaults against the business sector, schools and government organizations are now a primary cybersecurity concern. Making matters worse, is the ever-changing nature of ransomware attacks, complicating the cyber-defender’s job.
Download “The Evolution of Ransomware” to gain valuable insights on emerging trends amidst rapidly growing attack volumes. Click above to hone your defense intelligence!
For instance, the last 12 months has seen emerging types of extortion attempts on the part of ransomware operators. Double-extortion efforts pioneered by cyberattack groups like Maze have become standard operating procedure (stealing sensitive data and threatening to release it if a victim doesn’t pay up). But beyond this, some ransomware operators, such as the SunCrypt gang, are mounting follow-on denial-of-service (DoS) attacks to put the screws to victims. And, other gangs are using the data they steal to mount additional attacks on the initial victim’s partners or suppliers, as seen in the Blackbaud attack.
There’s also a burgeoning move to attack cloud resources such as Kubernetes and Docker, which opens up a new threat surface and area of risk for IT security teams.
Keeping up with ransomware changes can be overwhelming. To that end, Threatpost hopes to lend context, in-depth insights and mitigation examples with a fresh eBook to arm infosec professionals with knowledge needed to defend against not only the state of play – but also the emerging trends and attack patterns (such as those above) that are set to bubble up and take security staff by surprise in the year ahead.
In “2021: The Evolution of Ransomware,” a free, downloadable PDF eBook, a series of in-depth feature articles explores this multifaceted threat and what’s next. It kicks off with our lead story that goes beyond the ransomware status quo, and explores top emerging trends and granular insights like how ransomware code itself is changing.
Inside This eBook:
- Emerging Trends in Ransomware
- A Peek Inside the Ransomware Economy
- Cyber-Insurance Fuels Ransomware Payment Surge
- Threatpost Poll: The Cost of a Ransomware Attack
- Diary of a 48-Hour Ransomware Attack
- A Practical Guide to Avoiding Ransomware
We also take a deep dive into how the ransomware underground economy is structured and what goes on in illicit forums. Threatpost follows the money to find out how these affiliates work with ransomware operators, their code of conduct and more.
Inside this eBook, Threatpost also delivers an insider’s view into the real-world toll that ransomware can take. An exclusive case study takes readers inside a fascinating incident-response event, with a diary of the first 48 hours of an attack on a school district.
Other articles include exclusive Threatpost research (based on a reader poll) that examines attitudes towards paying the ransom, how respondents said they deal with a ransomware attack and what organizations’ top challenges are. We also take a critical look at the role of cyberinsurance companies when it comes to ransomware. Lastly, Threatpost offers a round-up of best practices for mitigating risk with an at-a-glance checklist for shoring up defenses.
Threatpost is releasing this eBook at a time of unprecedented growth for this type of cyberattack. The number of ransomware attacks has jumped by 350 percent since 2018, the average ransom payment increased by more than 100 percent in 2020, downtime is up by 200 percent and the average cost per incident is on the rise, according to a recent report from PurpleSec.
Worryingly, in a recent survey from Proofpoint, 75 percent of respondents said they have experienced a ransomware attack; victims also reported that ransom demand amounts are up 320 percent so far this year compared to 2020.
Businesses need to view ransomware as a future event to plan for, not a hypothetical abstract. Cloud services, remote workers and a reliance on connected devices put any business at risk for a ransomware incident.
The polymorphic nature of ransomware crimes plays out in multiple dimensions, and paying attention to those developing trends is vital. Download this free Threatpost eBook today, to help hone a solid foundation for understanding this threat, and how to be better positioned to defend against it – both now and in the future.
Download our exclusive FREE Threatpost Insider eBook, “2021: The Evolution of Ransomware,” to help hone your cyber-defense strategies against this growing scourge. We go beyond the status quo to uncover what’s next for ransomware and the related emerging risks. Get the whole story and DOWNLOAD the eBook now – on us!
