Ransomware attacks increased nearly 150 percent in Corona pandemic

Ransomware attacks will not only become more numerous in 2021, but also cause greater damage per extortion attack.

Basically, ransomware is nothing new and has been part of everyday life for companies, organizations and public institutions for many years. However, the topic is still in the headlines because the impact of these cyberattacks is enormous.

By encrypting IT environments, this form of malware causes major damage worldwide. This includes data loss or irreparable damage to data. Even paying a ransom sometimes does not prevent the disaster.

In the past year 2020, new and creative ransomware schemes appeared around the world. These included, for example, double blackmail, "as-a-service" attacks, as well as TrickBot and Emotet, and many other impairments.

And there is no end in sight to this trend. Industry experts predict even more sophisticated and damaging attacks in 2021. According to them, ransomware attacks will not only become more numerous in 2021, but also cause more damage per extortion attack.

By the third quarter of 2020 alone, the number of ransomware attacks increased 138 percent year over year - more than doubling. During the Corona pandemic, the year-over-year increase was as high as 149 percent.

In addition, the average amount of ransom demanded in 2020 increased from about $110,000 in the first quarter to $170,000 in the third quarter. A similar trend is also emerging for 2021.

The development of ransomware shows how necessary prevention plans with suitable tools are. Here, cybercriminals are taking a cue from traditional companies that invest in Software as a Service (SaaS).

With Ransom-as-a-Service (RaaS), they offer other hackers new attack options in the cloud subscription. Another option from the RaaS developers' offering is quasi-affiliate models. Here, the developers collect the extorted ransom, keep a certain percentage as commission and forward the rest.

This malware evolution also allows hackers or criminals with very little technical knowledge to profit from ransomware attacks. This will further fuel this form of criminal activity.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chrome targeted by criminals: Why users need to update quickly now

A security vulnerability in Google Chrome is currently being exploited by cyber criminals. Malware could land on your PC through it. Read here how you can protect yourself. The Google Chrome browser is currently struggling with some security vulnerabilities. In a blog post , Google warns about a total of seven vulnerabilities, with the majority of these gaps being classified as a "high" threat to users. The vulnerabilities have been fixed in the latest version of Chrome for Windows, Linux and macOS. If you have Chrome version 90.0.4430.85 installed, it can no longer be exploited. If you have an older version of the browser installed, you should update urgently. You can find the download of the new version below these lines. Smartphone users do not have to be afraid of the security vulnerability. Google has not had to take any security measures here for the time being. The security vulnerability probably remained undiscovered by cyber criminals for the time being. So far, noth...
Read more

Face and voice recognition: Why TikTok wants to be allowed to collect biometric data in the USA

TikTok's privacy policy for the US now mentions the collection of biometric data from faces and voices. The background is likely to be a legal dispute that cost the company $92 million. Neue Datenschutzbestimmungen sind oft eher etwas für Juristen, doch die jüngste Aktualisierung von TikTok sollte alle Nutzerinnen und Nutzer in den USA aufhorchen lassen. Denn in den am 2. Juni aktualisierten Datenschutzbestimmungen für die USA ist ein Abschnitt enthalten, den es zuvor nicht gab. Er lautet übersetzt: »Wir sammeln möglicherweise biometrische Identifikationsmerkmale und biometrische Informationen, wie sie im US-Recht definiert sind, wie etwa von deinem Gesicht und deiner Stimme, aus deinen Inhalten.« Im englischsprachigen Original ist von »faceprint« und »voiceprint« die Rede. »Bevor wir damit anfangen«, frage man jedoch nach dem Einverständnis, wenn dies gesetzlich nötig sei, fügte noch TikTok hinzu. In response to an initial inquiry from "TechCrunch" about the ba...
Read more

Microsoft Teams, Zoom, WebEx: Berlin authority warns against popular video systems

After an initial data protection audit, some video service providers have made improvements to their offerings. But the Berlin data protection commissioner still sees serious shortcomings. The State Commissioner for Data Protection in Berlin (Germany), Maja Smoltczyk, advises against using leading video conferencing systems such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Teamviewer and Cisco WebEx. The reason is a retest of various offerings. After a number of services had already failed a test of data protection requirements last year, a new test of the major providers did not reveal any substantial improvement. Smoltczyk said that she was pleased "that our comments had persuaded so many providers to improve their offerings, in some cases very significantly, in terms of data protection". There are now enough legally compliant services for a wide range of purposes that there is no reason to break data protection law for video conferencing. However, if a provid...
Read more