Q&A: Donato Ferrante on the Ransomware Simulator
There are few threats that are as commanding as much attention right now as ransomware is. It infects thousands of PCs every day, generates millions of dollars for the attackers behind the campaigns, and there’s not clear solution to the problem on the horizon. To help enterprises understand the threat, researchers at NCC Group built […]
On the Wire Podcast: Rick Holland on Ransomware
Let’s be honest: The ransomware crews are kind of winning right now. They have a simple, clean business model, a huge victim base, and not much on the horizon to slow them down. In this episode, Dennis Fisher talks with Rick Holland of Digital Shadows about a new research paper the firm did on ransomware […]
Android Nougat Takes on Mobile Ransomware
As Android ransomware continues to evolve, defenders are trying to keep pace. Most of the efforts to defeat ransomware have come through third-party security software and behavioral changes, but now Google is making a change to the next version of the mobile operating system to prevent a key part of some ransomware threats. One of […]
Ransomware Attacks May Trigger Breach Notifications
A powerful California congressman is pushing the federal government to treat ransomware attacks on medical facilities as data breaches and require notifications of patients. The pressure is coming from Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and follows comments from officials at the Department of Health and Human Services about the department’s plan to issue guidance to health […]
CryptXXX Ransomware Racking Up Victims
A new variant of the CryptXXX ransomware has been found, and it includes a handful of new capabilities, such as function that prevents the use of free decryption tools. The CryptXXX family of ransomware may not be as well known as strains like TeslaCrypt or CryptoLocker, but it is having some success of its own. The […]
New Bart Ransomware Released By Locky Crew
Because the world definitely needed another nasty piece of ransomware, the attackers who created the Locky ransomware have produced a new variant known as Bart, which is targeting victims in the United States and demanding nearly $2,000 for the decryption key. Bart appears to be a rather close relative of Locky and uses an intermediate […]
Crypto Ransomware Attacks Jump Nearly 500%
There appears to be no end in sight to the ransomware epidemic. New stats released by security researchers at Kaspersky Lab show that the number of users who came across crypto ransomware in the last year increased by more than 500 percent over the previous year. The variety and volume of ransomware being deployed by […]
On the Wire Podcast: Wade Williamson
Threat intelligence and ransomware have become inescapable topics in the security community of late, and there’s at least as much noise as signal in most of the discussions about them. To cut through some of this nonsense, Dennis Fisher called Wade Williamson of Vectra Networks to discuss the ways in which enterprises are detecting and […]
What’s on TV Tonight? Ransomware
Security researchers have discovered a variant of the FLocker Android ransomware that not only infects mobile devices, but also can infect smart TVs running certain versions of the operating system. The FLocker ransomware has been active for more than a year now, and it is many ways a typical piece of mobile ransomware. It is […]