Well, ducklings, it appears we’ve got an old chestnut to discuss today—ransomware attacks. You’ve probably heard all about it: the internet boogie men who pinch your data and then demand you pay a pretty penny to get it back—classic bedtime story stuff, though I’d wager it’s a bit more of a true horror story for many of us in the business.
A bit like feeding a stray cat who’ll keep coming back for more, this advice might not be new, but it’s been wisely offered by law enforcement for a right good reason. Paying a ransom does little more than put a big, glowing target on your back for future misfortune. Committing this act of surrender to the cyber criminals not only motivates them to do it again, but sadly, there’s nought by way of honour among thieves. Even once you’ve doled out your hard-earned cash, chances that they are going to behave themselves and delete that copy of your tasty, sensitive data they’ve snagged are about as likely as a snowstorm in August.
Just last week, those lovely bods at the National Crime Agency (NCA) brought us a yet more shocking revelation—if you can believe such cyber villainy could get any worse. After gathering some LockBit servers, the NCA discovered data from victims who had been promised their data’s destruction upon payment of the ransom. Spoiler alert: that was not the case. Proves the point that these miscreants have about as much integrity as a politician during election season.
If that wasn’t enough to get your heartrate up, here’s a heart stopper: nearly 80% of organisation that had coughed up ransom money were targeted a second time, according to those smart cookies at Cybereason. Over half of these suffered another ransomware attack within two years, with nearly two-thirds prompted to empty their pockets again. To add insult to injury, less than half of those hostage-takers bothered to return the data and systems unscathed.
And it doesn’t stop there. No, siree. Those who gambled and lost by paying up the ransom tend to double down on their bad luck. Cybereason worked out that a whopping 82% of them were caught out again within the year with 36% being creamed by the same digital dastardly wrongdoer. Even more unsettling, a fresh band of rogues descended upon 42% of them. To no one’s surprise, for those hit a second time, the ransoms escalated to thumb-twisting rates with over three-fifths of these folks dealing with increased demands.
What’s the moral of this grim tale, you ask? Well, it’s time we stopped playing into the hands of these conniving cyber criminals. It’s a right old mug’s game that we’ve got no chance of winning. Hold fast, folks, no matter how desperate the situation seems. For, as gruesome as these numbers might be, they offer a simple and invaluable lesson: don’t feed the proverbial stray cat or we’ll only have ourselves to blame for the consequences.
by Parker Bytes
