In this week's panel discussion, four editors at Information Security Media Group discuss cyber insurance, persistent ransomware attacks and whether ransom payments should be banned.
The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report features an analysis of the city of Tulsa's decision to refuse to pay a ransom following an attack. Also featured: Johnson & Johnson's CISO on shifting priorities; mitigating quantum computing risks.
Network intrusion displaced phishing as the leading hack-attack tactic last year, while ransomware continued to surge as the pandemic complicated incident response efforts, says BakerHostetler's Craig A. Hoffman, who describes trends from the 1,250 incidents his firm helped manage.
The U.K.-based insurance firm One Call says it has successfully restored its systems in a new environment that is separate from the one that was impacted by a ransomware attack May 13, adding that a ransomware note which purported to be from DarkSide could not be verified as authentic.
Ransomware attacks are stuck on repeat: Criminal syndicates have found an extremely profitable business model, and they're milking it for all it's worth. So give the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, credit for having in place robust disaster recovery capabilities and vowing to remediate, rather than pay criminals.
A week after Ireland's health services provider was hit by a ransomware attack, the Conti gang has provided a decryptor, which officials are now testing to determine whether to use it, Reuters reports. But the gang is still threatening to release stolen data unless a $19 million ransom is paid.
"They’re playing games," is how one security expert describes Conti ransomware-wielding attackers' "gift" of a decryptor to Ireland's crypto-locked health service, while still demanding a ransom to not leak stolen health data. The same could be said of the DarkSide gang's promised retirement.
Security researchers who track ransomware often think such attacks must have hit their peak and can't get any worse - but then they do, thanks to top gangs continually improving the sophistication of their criminal enterprises, say McAfee's Raj Samani and John Fokker.
While ransomware attacks are largely viewed as cybersecurity incidents, there are critical data privacy concerns that must always be top of mind, says Jodi R. Daniels, founder and CEO of privacy consultancy Red Clover Advisors.
The ransomware challenge facing organizations today traces directly to the success being enjoyed by gangs who wield such malware, says Palo Alto Networks' Jen Miller-Osborn, who describes new strategies to help disrupt this cybercrime business model, including the launch of the new Ransomware Task Force.
A new WastedLocker malware variant, dubbed WastedLoader, is exploiting two vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer to insert malicious advertisements into legitimate websites, the security firm Bitdefender reports.
Security researchers at FortiGuard Labs have uncovered another DarkSide ransomware variant with destructive capabilities. But the researchers say the variant is "unrelated to the Colonial Pipeline campaign" and no longer active.
In the wake of recent attacks on supply chains and critical infrastructure, Adrian Mayers says it's time for cybersecurity to be seen as an issue of national defense, and that cybersecurity leaders throughout the private and public sectors must embrace their role to protect national interests.
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