6 Ransomware Trends You Should Watch for in 2020
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…
As Businesses Move to the Cloud, Cybercriminals Follow Close Behind
COVID-19 has introduced many new normals for business, and IT operations are no exception. Despite tighter technology budgets in the wake of the economic recession, companies are moving full steam ahead toward the cloud due to the agility and scale it provides. According to a recent report from Flexera, 59% of companies surveyed plan on…
A history of ransomware: The motives and methods behind these evolving attacks
One day in December 1989, Eddy Willems got a floppy disk that changed his life. His boss gave it to him after finding the label intriguing: “AIDS Version 2.0,” a disease that was new and strange at that time. The company, based in Antwerp, Belgium, sold medical insurance among other things, and some AIDS statistics…
20,000+ new vulnerability reports predicted for 2020, shattering previous records
Over 9,000 new vulnerabilities have been reported in the first six months of 2020, and we are on track to see more than 20,000 new vulnerability reports this year — a new record, Skybox Security reveals. Reshaping the way that people work 50% increase in mobile vulnerabilities highlights dangers of blurring line between corporate and…
Seven Ransomware Families Target Industrial Software
Many ransomware families are designed to kill certain types of running processes. They might target security products to prevent them from blocking the attack and they can also terminate critical system processes so that they can encrypt files associated with these applications in an effort to cause disruption, which can increase the cybercriminals’ chances of…
Top security risks for companies to address as cloud migration accelerates
The ease and speed at which new cloud tools can be deployed is also making it harder for security teams to control their usage, IBM Security reveals. According to the data, basic security oversight issues, including governance, vulnerabilities, and misconfigurations, remain the top risk factors organizations must address to secure increasingly cloud-based operations. Additionally, an…
New software enables existing sensors to detect ransomware
Engineers from SMU’s Darwin Deason Institute for Cybersecurity have developed software to detect ransomware attacks before attackers can inflict catastrophic damage. Ransomware is crippling cities and businesses all over the world, and the number of ransomware attacks have increased since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Attackers are also threatening to publicly release sensitive data…
Ransomware on the rise, companies prioritizing disaster recovery
The rampant rise of ransomware persists, with 100% of respondents – who include ITOps, backup, disaster recovery and storage admins, application and workload owners in the U.S. – reporting that their company experienced a ransomware attack in the last 12 months, Datrium reveals. With the evermore heightened threat of ransomware during the COVID-19 pandemic, companies…
The battle against ransomware: Lessons from the front lines
Ransomware is arguably the most significant cybercrime innovation in recent history. The ransomware business model is so effective that it is now the most common and devastating threat to organizations of all sizes. As a provider of cyber insurance, we have the misfortune of responding to ransomware attacks across tens of thousands of organizations, and…
46% of SMBs have been targeted by ransomware, 73% have paid the ransom
Ransomware attacks are not at all unusual in the SMB community, as 46% of these businesses have been victims. And 73% of those SMBs that have been the targets of ransomware attacks actually have paid a ransom, Infrascale reveals. Yet, more than a quarter of the total SMB survey group said they lack a plan…