Blimey, you wouldn’t believe the sharp uptick in ransomware attacks we something startling of late. According to a recent report, cyber rogues, armed only with dodgy VPNs and weak passwords, have been wreaking about 30% of all ransomware havoc. Can you imagine that? They didn’t even need to break a sweat to break into our precious digital fortresses!
Heart of the matter is, most of these breaches can be traced back to outdated software and VPN accounts with shoddy, patchwork protections. A cheeky chappie with enough grit could just try their luck and penetrate our security boundaries with names as common as “admin” or “user”. And don’t get me started on the lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA). It’s like leaving your front door wide open, with a neon ‘welcome’ sign, isn’t it?
Now, these cyber ne’er-do-wells aren’t daft; they know to pick the path of least resistance for their nefarious deeds. Of late, that’s been through the VPN route. So, as we gaze into the future, we must bolster our defences with a security approach that doesn’t just stop at MFA. Fair dinkum, today, MFA is just the bouncer; the party inside needs more solid measures, like secure access controls, for keeping the ruffians at bay.
Wanna hear something surprising? Data harvested from ransomware leak sites saw 1,248 hapless digital victims in one quarter. That’s the highest ever for a single three-month period! It’s like a digital gold rush for these rascals.
Five groups were responsible for 40% of these attacks. One of them, RansomHub, claimed a staggering 195 victims, – a straight-up 160% increase from last quarter. Astonishingly, in their wake, they touched virtually every sector, draining digital piggy banks like a child in a sweet shop.
In fact, the construction industry had the toughest lot of em’ all – with a total of 83 reported victims in one quarter. That’s a slight nudge up from 77 in the preceding quarter. Healthcare organisations were not spared either. And, believe it or not, the number of victims went up from 42 to 53. RansomHub seems to have a distinct taste for infrastructure and related sectors.
What’s intriguing is that the number of ransomware groups went up to 59 by the end of the quarter. A game of musical chairs, this digital underworld seems to be. Once one group gets taken down, another fills the shoes in a blink.
So, what’s our takeaway from this, then? Well, it’s high time we put our collective noses to the grindstone, tighten our lax digital security, and take a solid stand against these cyber ruffians. After all, it’s better to be safe than sorry, innit?
by Parker Bytes
