The cybersecurity world is still feeling the effects of the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack today. While the majority of the damage occurred in the weeks after May 12, 2017, WannaCry ransomware attacks actually increased 53% from January 2021 to March 2021. While researching my in-depth article WannaCry: How the Widespread Ransomware Changed Cybersecurity, I learned…

A ransomware infection can have a significant financial impact on an organization. American digital security and data backup firm Datto found that ransomware is costing businesses more than $75 billion a year. Part of that financial impact results from downtime costs. Govtech also revealed that businesses lost an average of $8,500 per hour as the…

Steganography: A Safe Haven for Malware

Steganography, or the practice of concealing a file, message, image or video within another file, message, image or video, may be an older technique, but it continues to be an incredibly versatile and effective method for obscuring or hiding information in plain sight. In 2017, IBM X-Force has identified three different malware samples in network…

Just a Passing Fad? Fidget Spinners and the Malware Sandbox

This is the first installment in a three-part series about malware sandboxing. Stay tuned for more information. When the fidget spinner fad hit last year, my seventh grader was immediately on board and quickly became a fidget spinner snob, boasting about bearing quality and spin longevity. My fifth grader, however, eschewed fidget spinners with the…