Some threat actors are still willing to take whatever opportunities they can find. A recent ransomware attack on the developing and mostly-rural Papua New Guinea illustrates this.
Cyber Security
Cyber criminals, state-sponsored hackers and even the occasional disgruntled employee are constantly looking to gain unauthorized access for a variety of purposes: theft of money, cyber espionage, personal information for sale or for use in scams, and damage to critical infrastructure for just a few of the most common.
So how does an organization mitigate an entire world full of continual cyber attacks? Just as buildings have a number of necessary elements of physical security: access control, cameras, alarms and so on; there are similar key elements of cyber security that are absolutely vital for just about any modern business.
It starts with identifying and closing the most common doors that attackers use. For example, phishing attacks on employees are far and away the most common initial point of entry. The breach of even a low-level employee account can quickly turn into an escalation in access privileges and the ability to reach sensitive information. This is also true of smart devices, which are generally more poorly secured than computers and phones.
Portuguese energy company EDP suffered a ransomware attack by hacking group Ragnarok who threatened to dump 10TB of stolen data if the company does not pay a ransom of $10.9 million.
Lapsus$ cybercrime gang claimed responsibility for the Impresa group ransomware attack by defacing the media company’s website and tweeting from its verified Twitter account.
Lawsuit alleges that Springhill Medical Center was responsible for the death of a baby after ransomware attack prevented doctors from monitoring the baby's heartbeat during delivery.
One of Britain's most popular newspapers, The Guardian, is reporting that a suspected ransomware attack is causing some internal network trouble. The paper's report characterized it as "serious" despite it seemingly not stopping online or offline production of the paper.
A ransomware attack hit the online ticketing platform Vivaticket, disrupting booking services across European museums and monuments.
A ransomware attack has caused some chaos in the US Treasury market, as some transactions have had to be suspended or rerouted due to service outages and ICBC has been forced to process Wall Street trades via USB sticks.
AXA made news earlier in the month for opting to drop ransomware payment coverage from new cyber insurance policies in France. Operations in Asia were subsequently hit by a ransomware attack.
FBI's annual internet crime report says cyber crime losses increased by almost two-thirds while ransomware attacks remain the greatest risk to critical infrastructure organizations.
Ransomware attacks are causing a spike in cyber insurance rates as insurers need to cover ransom amount and recovery costs if hackers fail to make good on unlocking the compromised systems.










